Feet First: Nightmares
by M306117
Summary: Struggling to adapt to being a pony, Terra's life is thrown into chaos as his past and present threaten his future.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter One

_The buildings were empty, burnt and ominous, looming over the lone figure as he jogged down a street littered with flaming wrecks of cars. There was no sound other than him running, his armoured feet making dull thuds as they connected with cracked and melted tarmac, and there was no other presence than him, save for an air of death that hung over a doomed city. _

_He didn't stop for anything, dodging obstacles and leaping over craters, all the while pushing towards a far off objective._

_In the distance, the solitary runner heard explosions but barely gave them a second glance as he pressed on, boots crushing all manner of items. The man knew some of the things underfoot were the bones of men and women, children too, who had been burnt by powerful energy weapons. Still, he carried on, desperate to leave this Godforsaken place lest he join them. _

_Dark clouds gathered overhead, illuminated from within by near-constant flashes of lightning which arced out into the still air. Thunder followed soon after, massive claps that sounded like they had the potential to level cities. The man glanced at the buildings either side of him, noting the rickety superstructures of each and guessed that could happen. Then he glanced upward at a small group of lights that hung in the air, hovering thousands of metres up in the night sky._

_If the thunder didn't knock the buildings down, those lights would when they finally began to move. He shivered, pushing the images of what might happen out of his head and continued jogging. _

_Then the world wasn't silent anymore. The low, subsonic thrum of an anti-gravity drive pierced the air, followed by several more, and rapidly grew louder as purple dropships came into view and sped straight for him. He span to face them, rifle raised, but decided against it when he realised the weapon would do nothing against the armoured ships. So he turned and ran, now sprinting for his distant objective._

_He never made it. The lights in the sky began to move, the dropships closed in on him and both spat glowing balls of electric blue plasma that seemed to boil as it raced downward towards his position. The last thing he ever saw was a wall of bright blue fire heading straight for him._

Terra's eyes snapped open, breathing heavily as the after images of his dream lingered in his mind. It took him three seconds to remember where he was and another four to get his breathing under control.

'Just a dream.' Terra muttered to himself, laying his head back down on a pillow that was damp with sweat. It wasn't the first time he'd had such dreams but it was the first in which he'd died, something he'd done before and had no intention of going through it again. Especially as the last time Terra had died, he'd come back changed.

He glanced down at his body, eyes flickering over his legs and hooves. It wasn't how he'd always looked. A few months ago, he'd been a human being calling himself Michael Fletcher. But when a griffin had mortally wounded him with an energy sword, the Elements of Harmony had resurrected him three months after dying as a unicorn and, as with his first death and resurrection nearly a decade ago, it came with a catch.

Terra didn't age. Physically, he was a young stallion in the prime of his life and he would always look like one. The Elements had given him a regenerative ability that, aside from keeping him young, healed any wound the unicorn received and prevented him from being affected by any foreign substance like drugs or alcohol.

It also prevented him from having a normal life. After coming back and discovering his immortality, the unicorn had assumed he couldn't have a special somepony because, inevitably, they would die whilst he lived on, the same for any children they might have. At least, so Terra had thought.

Wrapped in his forelegs, fast asleep, was a mare he could have a normal life with. Like him, she was immortal and unable to have a normal life like most others as a result, which meant the two already had one reason to get together, and had gone through things most others would never even have nightmares about. She had been locked away in the Moon for a thousand years, he had died twice and spent the best part of a decade enduring fierce battles, often for months on end.

They comforted each other when things became too much, though more often than not it was Terra who needed the most comforting. He was, after all, still coming to terms with his immortality and being a pony whilst she was accustomed to it.

The mare in Terra's legs began twitching and mumbling in her sleep, having bad dreams of her own. 'No... No, please! I-I don't want to-' She whimpered and shivered. This wasn't an uncommon event and Terra had found a way to settle her.

'Shush.' He said gently, holding the mare tightly. 'It's okay, Luna. I'm here. Nopony can hurt you.' Terra placed a small kiss just behind her ear as he spoke, continuing to do this even after Luna settled down and fell silent again. He cared for Luna, there was no doubt in his mind about that, but he was reluctant to say he loved her. Their relationship was based more on necessity than anything else.

Terra had emotional and mental scars from his previous life, having been subjected to the horrors of war and a sense of isolation as the only one of his kind on Equestria for ten years being the two main culprits, but never sought counselling to deal with them. The unicorn had simply let them fester until it all became too much for him and broke down. Luna had been there when the floodgates finally collapsed and held Terra as he sobbed, drying his tears and offering some consolation. Terra had always felt Luna was more concerned with his emotional wellbeing, whereas Celestia, her sister, didn't show quite as much worry.

He briefly wondered why that was but quickly shifted his attention to Luna as she began to wake up, roused from her slumber by Terra kissing her ear.

'Terra?' she mumbled, stretching out her legs before drawing them back in. 'What time is it?'

'Late.' He said, pulling Luna into a hug.

'Why did you wake me?' She turned in his embrace so her head was resting on his chest, her forelegs crushed against it.

'I didn't mean to.' Terra placed a soft kiss on her forehead as Luna's eyes cracked open to look at him.

'Bad dreams?' she said, half question, half statement.

He nodded. 'The both of us.'

Luna sighed and yawned as she shifted to get more comfortable. 'What were yours about?'

'The usual.' Terra said, loosening his grip so Luna had more freedom to move. 'Me, all alone, in a city that's about to be glassed.' He debated on whether to tell her that this time it had included him dying but decided against it. 'I'm guessing yours were about Nightmare Moon?'

Luna hummed a yes. 'It was when I was becoming her, when my resentment finally took control after I came into contact with that metal. Some small part of me tried to fight it, but Nightmare Moon was too powerful.' She shivered and Terra drew her close once more. 'I was forced to watch as she terrorised Equestria, knowing that in some way it was me doing everything. My bitterness, personified as a monster.'

'Well, you're not bitter any more, Luna.' Terra said, kissing her on the lips. 'And you're definitely not a monster.' He gave a wicked grin. 'At least, not in public. When it's just the two of us, however...' The unicorn trailed a hoof down Luna's side. 'I can see why the night is your domain.'

She batted his hoof away but smiled, snuggling closer to the unicorn. 'I give as good as I get, you know.' Luna said, earning an affectionate nuzzle in return.

'And I'm just well motivated.' Terra whispered into her ear, kissing it as well. 'You're caring, considerate and beautiful as well. Why would I hold anything back?'

'I don't know.' She said, giving him a warm smile before shifting so her back was to Terra and his hooves were wrapped around her chest. 'Tell me about your dream.'

'Why?' Terra said.

'Because I'm too tired to do anything else.' Luna said back, yawning. 'It's the middle of the night and even though I really enjoyed it, I'm still exhausted from earlier.' She used her magic to throw a duvet over the two, covering their bodies. 'So come on, tell me what happened in your dream.'

'I already told you.' Terra murmured. 'It's just me walking through a deserted city, surrounded by death with Covenant ships hanging in low orbit, ready to glass the place. I'm all alone.' He kissed Luna's ear. 'Scared.' Another kiss. 'And running for my life.' He placed a third kiss on her neck.

'That's from before you came to Equestria, isn't it?' she said slowly, Terra's kisses making her feel relaxed and sleepy.

'Sort of.' He said. 'It's not a memory I actually experienced myself, but I think it's one of those that Moore implanted in my head when she brought me here.' The unicorn paused, running through what little of his dream he could remember. 'Actually, it feels less like a dream and more of a flashback. Everything feels so real. I can smell the stench of burnt flesh and metal, feel the heat of the flames and hear every footstep. It's like I'm really there, not reliving it.'

'Dreams can be a powerful thing, Terra.' Luna said quietly, sleep taking hold of her. She shut her eyes and Terra drew her close. 'But that's all they are. Dreams.'

Terra hummed but it didn't sound like he was convinced. 'Maybe.' He said as Luna finally fell asleep, leaving the unicorn to think over the dream and what it could possibly mean.

Terra was still thinking it over but was no closer to figuring it out when the sun finally rose, climbing out from behind the hills of the east to illuminate the inside of the room, making him squint against the brightness and waking Luna. She groaned and turned away from the light, burying her head into Terra's chest.

'Morning.' He said as Luna slowly opened her cyan eyes to peer into his grey ones, both sets holding a level of affection for the other.

'Morning.' she finally said, resting her head on the unicorn's chest to listen to his heartbeat. 'No more bad dreams?'

'Nope. You slept like a baby.'

'What about you?'

'I didn't have any either.' Terra said. 'Mostly because I spent the rest of the night watching you sleep than actually sleeping myself.' He smiled at her. 'You look pretty cute when you sleep. Did you know that?'

'No.' Luna trailed a hoof over Terra's chest, following the outline of the muscles there until her hoof went up his neck and to his cheek. 'We don't have to be downstairs for another hour and a half, do we?'

'Seeing as how the sun just came up? No.' Terra placed a hoof of his own under Luna's chin, using it to draw her head to his, placing a tender kiss on her lips when they were close enough. 'Why? Do you have something in mind for us to do until then?'

'I might.' Luna breathed, returning Terra's tender kiss with a more forceful one that sparked a war between the two, each side trying to outdo the other until it descended into a session of passionate love making.

It was closer to two hours later when Luna and Terra finally emerged downstairs, both freshly washed and relaxed, into a grimy castle foyer. It belonged to what remained of the Griffin Royal Family following the end of the last Equestrian-Griffin war seven months prior, though it hadn't just be griffins and ponies doing the fighting. Diamond Dogs and zebras had joined the griffins to try and eradicate the Equestrian nation as a power but ultimately their attempts were ended when Celestia and Luna cast something called the Nova Spell.

Luna had explained it as best she could to Terra afterwards, elaborating on the vague description she gave before it was cast. The spell, in a basic sense, was a weapon of mass destruction that only killed those who had no love for Equestria. She had tried to explain the process behind this but Terra had told her to stop, saying he only needed to know _what _it did rather than _how. _And, as Luna had also pointed out, the spell would effectively remove the three hostile nations from the face of the planet. However, there would have been some the spell wouldn't have affected. The few griffins, Diamond Dogs and zebras that wanted to build peaceful relations with the Equestrians which, as it turned out, was true and the reason Luna and Terra were stood in a grimy castle foyer deep within griffin territory.

They, or more accurately Luna, were acting as ambassadors from Equestria to rebuild those relations with the new regime of Griffonia. Terra was there as her companion, a job which meant he followed her everywhere, helped her with whatever she needed help with and provided security for the trips.

'Ready to get back to work?' Luna said as they walked to a set of oak doors, the entrance to a grand hall that was being used to conduct the talks. Terra had briefly thought back to the last time he'd been in Griffonia for discussions with the ruling monarchy and how that had gone, happily noting that this series of talks were going much better.

'Yes, ma'am.' Terra said, his demeanour and face shifting from a relaxed expression to a neutral one, even standing straighter next to Luna as he slipped into his guard persona, a role he knew well and took very serious. She was, after all, one of the princesses in charge of Equestria and it was his job to protect her. The fact they were in a relationship together just made it all the more important to do that job to the best of his abilities.

Luna's own smile faded a little as Terra became serious but quickly composed herself, leading the duo into the hall.

It was highly decorated, ornate wooden carvings of past kings and queens adorning the wall, their names inscribed on plaques beneath each. Terra looked for two names in particular and when he saw them, turned his attention back to Luna and the griffin king that she was talking with. He wasn't paying much attention to what it was they were talking about, politics were never of any real interest to Terra, but he was watching the king and three of his guards sat behind him. Terra was to Luna's left, close enough to let the others know he was there to protect her but not close enough to give them the impression he considered them a threat of any kind.

'Again, I'm sorry we were late down, this morning.' Luna said as the talk came up on a break. 'We had a late night and it made us oversleep. I would have thought my companion had set an alarm to wake us but it seems it slipped his mind.' She discreetly let her wing brush up against Terra, the motion blocked from the griffin's view by a table set between them, and the unicorn saw her give him a faint smile.

'My apologies, ma'am.' Terra said. 'But something came up last night that required my undivided attention and after it had been seen to, I forgot to set the alarm. It won't happen again.'

'Make sure that it doesn't.' Luna said, faking a tone of annoyance.

The griffin king, an ancient looking one, chuckled at her words. 'You don't have to hide what you two got up to last night, or even this morning. The entire castle heard you.' He said, still chuckling. 'I never would have imagined that a princess such as yourself was capable of being so vocal.' The griffin looked to Terra as Luna turned a deep shade of red. 'You must one hell of a stallion to get such a quiet mare to scream like that.'

'Uh...' Terra mumbled, thrown off guard by what the king had said.

'Ah, to be young again.' the old griffin sighed as the two ponies blushed. 'Young and in love, with not a care in the world.'

'Yes, well...' Luna finally said, stammering slightly as she regained her voice. 'Sorry to have, um, disturbed you last night.' Her blush receded a second later, as did Terra's who maintained a stoic exterior. 'We'll try to keep it to a minimum whilst we're staying here, won't we?' She looked to Terra, waiting for a response.

'Uh...' he said again, though his expression was no longer stoic, but distracted. It took a tap from Luna's wing to jolt him back to awareness. 'Huh?' Terra blinked and looked at Luna who wore a face that was half impatience and half worry.

'We'll try to keep it to a minimum, _won't we_?' she repeated, the worry on her face increasingly slightly as Terra blinked again and looked at the griffin king and his guards.

'Y-Yes.' he finally said after scrutinising the griffins closely.

'Are you okay, Terra?' Luna said quietly, leaning closer to the unicorn as his odd behaviour continued.

'Yeah, I was just, um, what the griffin king said... I wasn't expecting it.' Terra said slowly. Even though it seemed to put the griffin party at ease, Luna could tell it was a lie but didn't want to press the issue until they were alone so she assumed her earlier position, ready to continue to talks.

Terra, meanwhile, kept his gaze resting intently on the griffins, blinking fairly regularly. He wasn't sure if he'd imagined it or not, but he could have sworn the griffin's outlines had flickered and taken on a new shape. One that was over eight foot tall and bipedal.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Two

'Are you sure you're alright?' Luna asked once they were back in their room and, more importantly, alone. Terra's behaviour hadn't improved since that first instance, but neither had it gotten any worse. He'd simply kept his attention focused on the griffins, his expression altering between disbelief and fear. This made Luna worried and distracted her as well to the point that she was looking at Terra more than she was the griffins.

'I... I don't know.' Terra said, sitting down next to Luna who wrapped her wing around him, a way of comforting the unicorn. He stared off into the distance, running through the day's events in his mind's eye. 'It's just, the griffins, they...' Terra trailed off, searching for the right words. 'It looked like they were changing shape.'

'Changed shape?'

'Yeah.' He finally said, eyes still unfocused and unaware of Luna'. 'They turned into creatures I know to be non-existent.' Terra looked up at Luna, a worried expression on his face. 'At least, I hope they were changing.'

'You hope?' Luna said, getting a nod. 'What makes you think they weren't?'

'Because you didn't react to them at all.' Terra said, his worry seeming to grow. 'I was watching them for the entire session, counting how often their outlines flickered into something they're not, and each time they did you didn't show any kind of reaction. Not once.'

'That's because I was watching you, Terra.' Luna whispered, holding him closely. 'You seemed so distracted, and you had a look of fear on your face.' She kissed his cheek. 'I care more for my special somepony than I care for improving diplomatic relations with the Griffin Royal Family. If you're worried and upset, then I'm going to pay more attention to you.'

The unicorn gave her a weak smile but it quickly faded. 'So you didn't see any of the griffins briefly go from being quadrupeds to bipeds? Even for a second?'

'No, I didn't.' Luna said. 'Why? Is that what you saw?'

'Maybe.' Terra sighed and got up, moving away from Luna and to the window where he could see out over the griffin capital and the night sky above. 'I... I don't know if they _did _change shape or if it was just my mind playing tricks on me. Sometimes I wonder if it's all a dream.' He looked up at the stars as Luna came and sat next to him, resting her head on his shoulder. 'Living on an alien planet, coming back from the dead not once but twice.' Terra placed a gentle kiss on Luna's head. 'Being in a relationship with a beautiful mare. I never thought any of that would happen to me.'

A gust of wind came in through the open window, tugging at both their manes. 'What did you think would happen?' Luna asked, closing her eyes at the sensation. It was only after several seconds of silence did she open her eyes to look at Terra, wondering why he hadn't answered.

'N-No.' He whispered, stare fixed on a point high above him as terror swept across his face. 'No, no, no, no!' The unicorn backed away from the window, clumsily scrambling over his own legs until he went down with a thud. 'Not here!'

'Wha- Terra?' Luna said, looking between the unicorn and the sky above, seeing nothing but stars and the occasional cloud. 'What's the matter? What's here?'

'P-Phantom.' Terra stammered, sweat beading on his forehead. 'Right over us.' He began shivering, curling up into a ball. 'It can't be here.'

Luna scanned the sky again, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, then went to the trembling pony. 'There's nothing here, Terra.' She whispered, using her wing to cover him as she ran a hoof through his mane. 'It's just the two of us, nothing else. Nothing that can hurt either of us. We're safe.'

'Y-You're sure?' Terra said timidly, looking up at Luna and, for the second time in all the years that she'd known him, he sounded vulnerable.

Luna nodded. 'I'm sure. We're all alone up here.' She lay down next to him, drawing Terra closer. 'We're safe and sound.'

'But... But I saw-' Terra began to say before Luna shushed him.

'It wasn't real, Terra.' she murmured. 'You were just seeing things, your mind playing tricks on you.'

'Bu- I saw a- It was right-' Terra said, each time the sentence dying on his lips. He groaned and dropped his head so it was on the floor. 'My head hurts.'

'It's probably because you need some sleep.' Luna said, standing and helping Terra up. 'You haven't had much rest over the past few days, have you?'

'No.' He said. 'I haven't.' Terra stretched and yawned before shaking his mane out.

'Well, make sure you have a good night's sleep, Terra.' Luna said as they made their way to the double bed.

'Is that an order?' he asked, crawling under the freshly laundered covers, Luna joining him a few seconds later.

'If it helps, then yes.' She said as Terra wrapped her in a hug. 'I order you to get some sleep.'

'Happy to oblige, ma'am.' Terra said, placing one last kiss on her neck before laying his head on a pillow. He was asleep thirty seconds later.

_The dream was different, taking place in a burning forest rather than a deserted city and he was wearing nothing except for torn combat trousers instead of matte black armour, but he was running all the same. _

_Behind him were the sounds of fire, growing ever closer despite his flat out sprint to get away from it, and the screams of wounded Marines which were slowly dying out, only to be replaced with guttural alien tongues that barked orders._

'_Spread out, you whelps. Find any survivors and bring them back to me!' a particularly low and growling voice snarled, easily overcoming the roar of flames. The runner momentarily looked back over his shoulder as he continued to flee, doubling his speed when he saw how close the flames were._

'_So what kind of crusading are we gonna do today, girls?' a second voice called out. This one, in comparison to the other, was far softer and more childlike, and the sudden appearance of it and three small ponies right in front of the runner made him stumble and fall to the floor, his pistol going flying._

'_Ah dunno. But maybe we can do something that doesn't involve us getting covered in tree sap and pine needles?' a third voice asked, coming from one of the three ponies walking in front of the downed runner. The owner was a yellow Earth pony, a red ribbon tied into red hair. Besides the Earth pony was a white unicorn and an orange Pegasus. 'Maybe we could become taste testers for the Cakes!'_

'_Or help Pinkie Pie organise her parties!' the unicorn suggested excitedly, she and the other two seemingly oblivious to the flames, the screaming Marines or the runner who was barely ten feet from them. He blinked, momentarily thrown off guard, then scrambled to his feet, scooping up his fallen pistol._

'_I still think we should try water skiing again.' the Pegasus said as the trio walked by, towards the growing fire. 'Only this time, we try to avoid the rocks.'_

'_Ya'll were the one pulling us, Scootaloo!' the Earth pony said. 'It wasn't our fault we crashed.'_

_The man followed the three ponies, weapon raised and ready to fire. Not that it would have done him any good if he ran into a large group of enemies. Three bullets would only delay his death by a fraction of second, if that, but he would go down fighting._

'_Hey, it's not easy towing two ponies behind you while you're balancing on a plank of wood.' The Pegasus shot back. 'And I had to go really fast so I wouldn't sink!'_

_Both the Earth pony and the Pegasus began bickering, walking closer to the burning woods with the man close behind, pistol still held in front of him. His eyes never stopped, constantly checking the woods for signs of hostiles. The three ponies were still completely oblivious to the approaching fire, even though the air temperature was rising beyond triple digits._

_Then the scenery changed, swapping a burning forest for a pristine looking town filled with wooden buildings and ponies of every colour. Even the temperature changed and the man felt a chill run across his bare skin as a wave of pain slammed into his head. He staggered, thrown off balance by the pain but quickly recovered, pistol raised, as he once again heard the growled commands of the aliens that were searching for him._

'_Find the imp and bring it back alive.' the alien in charge ordered, sounding as though he was everywhere at once._

_The man span around, searching vain for the alien, then froze as he saw dozens of squat, bipedal creatures that suddenly appeared, as if from thin air, and began walking into the town, firing blobs of bright green plasma at the residents of the town who, like the three ponies from before who had vanished, showed no awareness of the aliens attacking them, even when a bolt of plasma struck them._

_They just carried on as their flesh and bones were burned away to nothing. None dropped to the floor, or even whimpered in pain. Some actually carried on conversations when their partner was vaporised completely by a plasma grenade, simply talking to thin air._

_Another wave of pain hit the man and he dropped to his knees, the pistol falling from his hands. 'This can't be happening.' He whispered, clutching his head as more of the town's inhabitants were cut down. 'This isn't happening.'_

'_Yes, it is.' A small pony said, suddenly coming into existence in front of the man. It was a filly, her coat blood red and a grimacing skull for a cutie mark. 'The Covenant is really attacking Ponyville.'_

'_No they aren't.' A second filly said, appearing in much the same manner as the first only her coat was a more forgiving blue with a smiley face instead of a skull as her cutie mark. 'The Covenant doesn't exist. You know that, Terra. Fight it.'_

'_Are not.' The red filly said. 'They're real.'_

'_Are too.' The blue filly retorted. 'The Covenant is fake.'_

'_Are not.' _

_Are too.'_

'_Are not.'_

'_Are too.' They continued to bicker, turning to face each other with snarls appearing on both their faces. Each time they spoke, a fresh bout of debilitating pain hit the man until he was sprawled on the floor, convulsing from it all._

'_P-Please.' He whimpered, barely able to think straight let alone speak. 'J-J-Just le-eave me al-al-alone!'_

Frantic shaking roused Terra, his eyes snapping open as pain continued to pound into his skull.

'LEAVE ME ALONE!' he screamed, legs flailing in the air. 'LEAVE ME ALONE, LEAVE ME ALONE, LEAVE ME ALONE!' The unicorn fell from the bed with a solid thump, still shaking uncontrollably. 'THE COVENANT ISN'T REAL! ARE TOO, ARE TOO, ARE TOO!' Terra finally managed to find his hooves and scrambled to them, backing away from a dark shape that was right in front of him. 'GET OUT OF MY HEAD, YOU LITTLE BASTARDS!'

Silence fell over the room as Terra stopped screaming, back against a corner with a combat spell charged and ready, breathing heavily as the pain in his head slowly ebbed away until it was just a dull ache at the base of his skull. Then the room came back into focus, blurred lines resolving themselves into ornate decorations and the frame of a bed with Luna sat on top of it, holding her hoof to the side of her jaw, blood trailing down it with an expression on her face that was equal parts afraid and worried.

'Lu-Luna?' Terra whispered, blinking heavily as he terminated his spell. 'Are you...?' He glanced at his own hooves and saw a splash of blood on one. 'Oh, god. What happened? I didn't hit you, did I?' She took her hoof away to show him a gash along the side of her face, making Terra wince.

'Oh, god. Luna, I'm so sorry.' He said, rushing over to her side, using his magic to rip a stretch of bed cover off which he used as a temporary bandage to stem the bleeding. 'I'm so, so sorry. I never meant- I'm so sorry.' Terra used another strip of cloth to clean her hoof of blood. 'I just- When I woke up- It was an accident.'

He took the makeshift bandage away to inspect the wound, grimacing at his handiwork. It ran the entire length of her jaw and bled quickly. 'Are you okay?' Terra asked as he reapplied the cloth.

'Y-Yes, I'm alright.' Luna replied shakily, flinching as Terra increased the pressure on her wound. 'It's just a flesh wound.'

'Yeah, it... it is.' The unicorn said. He tore off another strip of cloth and held it against the cut, taking away the bloodied rag away. 'Luna, I'm so sorry.'

'You don't have to keep apologising.' Luna said, placing her hoof against his cheek. 'I know you didn't mean to hit me. It was an accident.' She levitated a bowl of water from the bathroom and Terra soaked a third piece of bed linen in it, using the damp cloth to clean her wound. 'What were you dreaming about?'

'I don't really know.' He said, dabbing at Luna's cut. 'At first, I was running through a wood with Brutes and Grunts chasing after me, then I saw the Cutie Mark Crusaders appear right in front of me, acting as though nothing was wrong.' Terra dipped the cloth into the bowl, its water starting to turn pink, then washed more blood away, making Luna wince. 'Sorry.'

'It's alright.' She assured him. 'What happened after the Cutie Mark Crusaders appeared?'

'They started walking deeper into the forest, towards a raging fire that none of them seemed to care about, then everything changed. I wasn't walking through a forest anymore, I was in Ponyville.' Terra used a fresh stretch of linen to dry Luna's injury. 'Ponies were walking around, talking to each other and going about their lives. None of them saw me, even though I was barely a foot from some of them. Then the Covenant showed up.'

He dried away the last of the blood then took the cloth away, setting it and the bowl of water on the floor.

'I'm guessing nopony reacted.' Luna said as Terra stared despondently at the cut he'd caused.

The unicorn nodded. 'Grunts popped into existence everywhere, firing plasma pistols and throwing plasma grenades at everypony. I saw ponies get hit by them, their flesh literally melting, and not notice.' He sighed and lay down, covering his head. 'I watched foals get reduced to skeletons, smelled their skin burn and could even hear it bubble.'

Luna lay next to him. 'It was a dream, Terra. Nothing more.' she said. 'Just a bad dream.'

He grunted. 'Yeah, but it was damn realistic. And as if watching Ponyville get attacked wasn't bad enough, these two fillies showed up and started arguing over whether the Covenant was real or not. Every time they spoke, my head felt like it was going to split open from pain. Then, when it felt like I was on the verge of exploding, you woke me up.' Terra raised his head, guiltily glancing at the wound on Luna's jaw. 'Again, I'm sorry I hit you.'

'It's okay. You weren't yourself when you woke up.' she murmured, moving closer to the unicorn. 'The Terra I know would never hit a mare he cared about.'

Terra smiled weakly but it vanished. 'What are we going to tell everypony else when they see your jaw?'

'The truth.' Luna said. 'I tried to wake you from a bad dream but you when I did, you were confused, disorientated, and accidentally hit me.' She curled up next to Terra who used his magic to cover them with what remained of the duvet.

'And what are we going to say about my dreams? Or hallucinations?' he asked quietly. 'What if they get worse?'

We'll go and see Doctor Hayward when we get back to Canterlot.' Luna said as Terra drew her into a comforting hug, though each had a different reason to want to be comforted. He was still shaken up following his dream and striking Luna while she was just worried about him. 'The talks will be over in a few days, then we can go home.'

Terra hummed in agreement then fell silent.

'I'm scared, Luna.' He finally whispered, holding her closely. 'I imagined seeing Elites this morning and then I hit you just now. What if it's not my mind playing tricks on me and I'm going crazy? What if Hayward can't help me? What if I have another bad dream and hurt you worse than just a cut across your jaw? I might kill you.' Terra buried his head in Luna's mane. 'I don't want to lose you.'

'You won't, Terra.' She said gently as the stallion began to cry, turning so they were face to face. 'You won't lose me. I promise.' Luna wiped an errant tear away with her hoof, offering a small smile as she did. 'You're my special somepony.'

He blinked then returned her smile, albeit with a watery one. 'And you're my special somepony.' Terra whispered, nuzzling her as his grin became more confident before fighting back a yawn.

'Sounds like you still need some sleep.' Luna observed, suppressing a yawn of her own.

Terra nodded. 'Promise me you'll wake me up if I have a bad dream.' He mumbled, eyes flickering to stay open. 'But from afar. I don't want to hurt you again.'

'I promise.' She said, resting her head on his chest as Terra's legs held her tightly. They were both asleep within minutes of each other, though as the night wore on, Terra began whimpering in his sleep again, plagued by more nightmares of red and blue fillies arguing.


	3. Chapter 3

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Three

The rest of the diplomatic visit went by without any further major incident, though Terra continued to have bad dreams and the occasional hallucination but these were, thankfully, mostly when he and Luna were alone, and the Equestrian ambassadors left Griffonia after establishing solid relations with the Griffin Royal Family.

Upon returning to the Equestrian capital of Canterlot, Terra booked an appointment with the castle's resident psychologist, an orange unicorn mare called Doctor Hayward who Terra had been a patient of long ago, back when he had still been a human. He had also held a gun to her face, believing Hayward had leaked sensitive documents to the general public before it had emerged that anypony could have gotten to her files and distributed them. The culprit had never been found and given how it had been well over seven months since then, Terra doubted they ever would.

He briefly thought on why anypony would want to leak his medical notes to the public. One theory he had was that the thief was related to a pony Terra had killed whilst he was human and was out for revenge, hoping to imprison him or worse. Terra's second theory revolved more around the idea that the theft and release of the documents was part of a larger conspiracy by the pre-war Griffin Royal Family in an attempt to weaken Equestria's fighting ability by removing him from the picture, making it easier for them to attack. Either way, he had been banished and Equestria attacked.

Coming back to the present, Terra shook his head clear as he walked down the hallway to Hayward's office, a small wood lined room tucked away in the castle. He stopped outside the door and knocked three times.

'It's open.' Hayward called from somewhere inside the room and Terra used his magic to open it, stepping under the low doorframe into the psychologist's office. It was just as dusty as he remembered, though more books lined the walls and Hayward's desk was only just visible under mountains of files and folders strewn haphazardly over its surface.

The mare herself was sat behind it, reading from a bulging file with a quill and scroll floating next to her head. 'Oh, hello.' She said, looking up at Terra as the stallion eased himself onto the sagging settee set opposite her. 'I'm Doctor Hayward but you can call me Doctor, Doc or just Hayward if you prefer. And you must be Terra, right?'

'Yes, ma'am.' He said, nodding once.

'Sorry about the mess, it's just...' Hayward trailed off, looking at Terra intently. 'Have we met before?'

'I don't think so.' Terra said quickly, shifting uneasily under her scrutiny.

'Are you sure?' the mare said. 'Only I could have sworn I've seen you somewhere before.' She kept up her inspection for a few more seconds then shrugged, turning back to the file in front of her. 'Never mind. It'll come to me eventually. Now, how can I help you?'

Terra relaxed slightly as Hayward began scribbling notes down on her scroll. It wasn't an uncommon occurrence for ponies that lived and worked with the castle in Canterlot to stop and stare at him if they happened to cross paths, familiarity washing over their faces as the unicorn went past. Mostly, they were ponies that had worked around Terra when he'd still been a human and seen him without his helmet on, catching a rare glimpse of the face that lay behind the emotionless visor, but soon let it pass once he was gone. The only ponies who knew he had once been a human were Celestia and Luna, and Terra had asked them to not tell anypony.

'I've been having these nightmares.' he said. 'And seeing things when I'm awake.'

'When did they start?' Hayward asked, looking at Terra over the top of her scroll.

'A few days ago.' Terra said. 'I was in Griffonia with Princess Luna on a diplomatic visit to the Griffin Royal Family when they started.'

'What did you see?'

He began to say aliens but stopped. 'Monsters.' Terra said instead. 'Tall, ugly looking monsters that walked on two feet.'

'Did they do anything?' Hayward said, writing down what Terra was saying on a blank scroll.

'Nothing really.' He said, shrugging. 'They more sort of replaced the griffins when they were speaking with the princess, mouth movements and everything, but vanished as quickly as they'd appeared.'

'Did you have any other hallucinations like this?' she said. 'Or was this an isolated incident?'

'It was an isolated incident.' Terra said, deciding not to tell Hayward about the Phantom.

'I see.' Hayward levitated several books from the shelves around them and flipped each open to specific pages. 'Have you ever seen anything like those monsters anywhere before in your life?'

'No.' He said.

_Have too. _A foal's voice said, seemingly coming from inside Terra's head.

_Have not. _A second retorted, both voices accompanied by a wave of pain.

'Shut up.' Terra muttered under his breath quietly enough so that Hayward wouldn't hear it, grimacing from the pain.

'Did you say something?' Hayward murmured, momentarily glancing up from one of the books.

'No, ma'am.' Terra said.

'Oh.' She went back to the leather-bound volume. 'Tell me about these nightmares you've been having. What happens in them and are they the same each time or does something change?'

'They're usually the same. I'm running through a city that's about to be destroyed, trying to escape before it happens. Though the other night I was in a forest rather than a city, then I was in Ponyville. Both of which were suffering from some kind of disaster.' He said. 'The forest was burning and Ponyville came under attacked by more of those monsters.' Terra added when Hayward looked at him questioningly.

'So most of these dreams involve you being in a dangerous place.' Hayward said, briefly glancing at the stallion before returning to her notes and books. 'Being threatened by something beyond your control.'

'I guess so.' Terra said, giving a non-committal shrug. 'Think it means anything?'

'Maybe.' Hayward said. 'Tell me, did you serve as a soldier at any point in your life?'

'Yes.' He answered without hesitating. 'Though only during the last war.' A lie, but it was part of the new life Terra had created for himself to go along with his new body.

'Were you a volunteer or a conscript?'

'Conscript.' Terra said which wasn't, technically, a lie. He had never volunteered to come to Equestria in the first place, simply awakening on the planet inside a metal pod with a rifle in his arms, helmet on his head and no clue as to how he got there.

'Which means you fought during the Battle of Canterlot.' Hayward said, more statement than question.

'Yes, ma'am.' he said, briefly flashing back to the closing fight of the war. 'I was stationed in the throne room.'

'Uh huh.' Hayward brought out another book, this one jammed with loose bits of paper that she rifled through. 'That also means you fought alongside Michael Fletcher, the alien warrior?'

'Yeah, I did.' Terra said, nodding slowly. 'He was... scary to watch in action.'

'He was scary when he was angry, too.' Hayward said, shivering. 'But more to the point, you were involved in the heaviest fighting ever faced by Equestrian soldiers. Were you injured at any point during the battle?'

'Quite badly.' Terra said, which was the truth for a change. 'I was impaled on a griffin sword and died.'

'You died?' Hayward said.

'I got better.' The stallion said back.

'Evidently.' Hayward said. 'Now I'm going to ask you a few questions that may seem personal and invasive, but they are designed to help me figure out what might be causing these hallucinations and nightmares. Is that alright?'

'That's fine, Doctor.' Terra said, nodding. 'Fire away.'

'Very well. First question: have you had difficulty falling asleep or staying awake since these nightmares began or even before they started?' Hayward asked, producing a fresh scroll to write on.

'Not really. I can fall asleep pretty easy and I don't find myself nodding off when I am awake.'

'Second question: are you in a committed relationship with anypony?'

Terra nodded.

'How long have you been in this relation?'

'A little over a month.' He said.

'And are the two of you sexually active?'

'Yeah, we can get pretty active.' Terra said, smiling faintly.

'Which of you usually entice the other to have sex?' Hayward asked.

Terra mulled it over in his mind. 'I'd say it's about even, though I would lean more towards her, especially at night.'

'Okay.' Hayward scribbled some more notes down. 'Question three. Do you ever experience bouts of anger at anything? In particular, griffins or anything related to war?'

He shook his head. 'No. I was in Griffonia for three days before I had my first hallucination.'

'Fourth question. Since the end of the war, have you gone out of your way to avoid certain subjects?' she said. 'Or do you feel uneasy when you see specific items?'

'Not that I'm aware of, no.'

'Final question. Would you say that since the end of the war, you've been more emotionally distant or lacked the ability to feel some emotions?'

'Uh...' Terra did a quick flick through his memories since coming back to life. 'No, and my marefriend hasn't said anything along those lines either.

Hayward wrote something down then filed away the scroll, tucking it into an empty folder which she stacked on top of a pile of full folders, each nearly overflowing with paper. 'And that's that.'

'So?' Terra asked, watching the psychologist tidy away more of her things. 'What's wrong with me?'

'I'm not really sure, Terra.' Hayward said. 'You show _some _symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, a common occurrence with soldiers who survived the war but suffered major injury, but not all of them.' She gestured with her head to the desk and at his thin folder. 'You have a sexually active relationship, no issues of anger or diminished emotional capacity, and you've only just started to experience hallucinations and nightmares based on your experiences, though why they include bipeds is a mystery.

'Best guess would be that you're either starting to suffer from PTSD or are already suffering it though only to a minor degree. Either way, I'd prefer to leave it for a month or so, maybe two, before making a more proper assumption.'

'Can you suggest anything for me to do in case I have another hallucination?' Terra asked as he stood to leave.

'Other than repeat to yourself that it isn't real? Not really.' Hayward said, remaining sat down. 'These instances have to persist for more than a month before I can diagnose you with PTSD and recommend suitable treatment. Just keep a level head and you'll be fine.'

'You say so, Doc.' Terra said. 'Thanks for checking me over.'

'Any time, Terra.' She said, levitating a thick file over. 'Until our next appointment.'

'Until then.' Terra dipped his head in farewell then left the small office and headed to the throne room where he found both Celestia and Luna sat atop their thrones, newly built along with the wall directly behind them and a small window set into the wall opposite and above them. All three had been damaged or destroyed by Terra when he'd piloted a dying gunship into the room, smashing through the window and colliding with the thrones before using the wall as an impromptu emergency stop to halt his forward momentum.

Luna noticed him first, looking up as Terra entered the throne room. The cut along her jaw was healing quickly, now just a thin scab that would disappear in a few days, but the doctors who had looked it over when she and Terra had returned to Canterlot had warned it would leave a faint scar and a feeling of guilt quickly entered Terra's mind when he saw it again but the feeling passed as soon as it had come.

She glanced at her sister, Celestia, who made a subtle motion to the few other ponies in the room and they dispersed, leaving the room empty barring the three of them.

'Well?' Luna asked hesitantly as Terra drew closer.

'PTSD.' He said. 'Maybe. Hayward isn't willing to commit to a diagnosis until the hallucinations persist for more than a month. Though given everything I've been through? I wouldn't be surprised if it was posttraumatic stress disorder.'

'At least we'll know for sure.' Luna said, offering a reassuring smile to the stallion which he returned as she got up from her seat and trotted towards him.

Terra's smile became lopsided as he and Luna nuzzled one another but it faltered when a headache started up and the throne room seemed to flicker, the ancient stone walls briefly turning to metal before reverting back. He stepped back and shook his head, blinking to make sure the walls were stone.

Luna's own smile waned when she realised what was happening. 'Anything bad?'

'No. No monsters.' He grimaced against the pain as his head started to throb. 'Just the room we're standing in turning from a castle into a UNSC base.' Familiar voices piped up, resuming their usual argument of whether it was real or not. 'Not real, not real, not real.' Terra grunted and smacked himself on the side of the head. 'Six percent.'

By now, Celestia had risen from her throne and had joined Luna in watching Terra as he continued to suffer his headache, arching an eyebrow at his last statement. 'What's six percent?' she asked as the stallion finally relaxed, his features taking on a relieved expression.

'What's what?' Terra said back, sitting down when his hind legs began to tremble a little.

'Six percent.' Celestia said. 'You hit yourself and said six percent.'

The unicorn shrugged. 'I don't remember saying it. You sure I did?'

'Yes.' Celestia said, nodding.

'I heard you say it too, Terra.' Luna added, backing her sister up.

'Oh.' Terra shrugged a second time. 'Well if I did, I still don't know what it means. All I could hear were two fillies arguing over whether something was actually there or not.' He looked around the room then nodded to himself, satisfied it was how it should be. 'Guess me and the blue filly were right after all. It isn't real.'

'Of course it isn't.' Luna said, helping him to his hooves. 'It's all in your head, Terra. And in a few months, Hayward will tell us how to help you. Okay?'

Terra's smile came back. 'Okay. Just make sure you stay away from me if I have another episode. I don't want to hurt you or anypony else.'

'I will.' Luna gave him a quick kiss on the cheek though she didn't return the unicorn's smile, giving him an unhappy expression instead as she glanced momentarily at Celestia. 'Terra, how would you feel if I said Celestia and I were planning to visit Ponyville to see Twilight Sparkle and her friends?'

'Hesitant.' Terra said, his own expression falling to match Luna's. 'When are you thinking of going?'

'In the next few days.' Celestia said, stepping forward. 'And we'd like it if you were with us, Terra.'

The stallion looked to the older Alicorn, jaw clenching an unclenching. 'You know I won't go.' He said.

'But you have to face them sooner or later.' Luna said. 'You can't avoid them for the rest of their lives.'

'I can try.' Terra said firmly.

'And what will that achieve?' Luna said quietly as she stared at the unicorn. 'You're isolating yourself from six of the few ponies who knew you well, hiding the fact you're alive and flat out refusing to even go near them. Why? What possible reason could you have for doing that?'

Terra didn't say anything, he just looked away from Luna and up at a stained glass set behind the thrones.

'Tell me.' Luna said sternly, using her hoof to make Terra look back at her. 'Tell me why.'

'Because then all they'll see is a soldier.' Terra brushed her hoof away and began pacing. 'The soldier that caused most of them to get hurt in one way or another.'

'That's not true.' Celestia said. 'They remember the person behind the soldier, the person that went out of his way to protect them. They never saw you as a soldier. They saw you as a friend and still do.'

'What makes you think their only memories are of you being a soldier, anyway?' Luna asked gently, stopping Terra by using her wing to pull him close.

'I... I don't know.' Terra mumbled. 'I just... It's how I thought of myself for years. Guess I dropped into the mindset that everypony saw me as one as well.' He sighed and nuzzled Luna for comfort. 'Fine, I'll go with you to Ponyville. But don't tell them who I was. I want to do that, when I know for sure that they never saw me as nothing more than a soldier.'

'Thank you, Terra.' Luna whispered, returning his nuzzle.

He hummed and broke away from the princess, sitting in front of her and Celestia's thrones as the two sisters resumed their places on them.

_Six percent. _A flat, monotone voice echoed throughout Terra's head as the double doors leading into the throne room opened, the daily routine continuing. _Six percent. _He ignored it despite a faint wave of pain that swept through his head, grimacing just a little. _Six percent fragmented. And rising._


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Four

Terra stared at the ground below him with a distant look as the chariot carrying him, Luna and Celestia flew towards Ponyville. It had been close to a year since he'd been there, last visiting the small town for almost the exact same reason as this visit. The unicorn thought back to it, grimly realising it was the last normal day of his human life, as well as the last time he'd gotten drunk.

He sighed and rested his head on the chariot's side wall.

'Something wrong?' Luna asked as she moved to sit next to Terra.

'Just thinking about the past.' He said. A cloud to their left seemed to flicker, momentarily turning into a Banshee, and Terra blinked hard. 'And seeing things.'

'It isn't real. You know that.' She said gently.

'I know.' Terra said, watching the cloud intently. 'Feels real, though.'

'Yes, but feeling real and being real isn't the same thing.' Luna said, wrapping her wing around the stallion.

He grunted. 'Sometimes feeling real is enough.' Terra said, wrenching his stare from the cloud and to Luna. 'You saw what I was like in Griffonia when I thought I saw a Phantom, how scared I was. Next time I suffer something like that, fear might not be my initial response. Could be that I react more aggressively, combat instincts kicking in to push me over the edge.'

'We might have found a way to stop things like that from happening before then.' Luna said as she pulled Terra closer.

'And if we haven't?' he said back, head once more resting on the chariot sidewall. 'What if it turns out that I'm stuck with these hallucinations for the rest of my life? Eternity is a long time to be suffering PTSD.'

'We'll find a way, Terra.' Luna said, nuzzling him as the chariot banked then levelled out. 'We will.'

'Glad to see one of us is optimistic.' Terra said as he sat up and returned her affection before stopping, his eyes momentarily going blank. 'Seven percent.' He blinked and shook his head. 'Did I just space out?'

Luna nodded. 'You said seven percent this time.' She sighed as Terra's face scrunched up in pain, resting her head on his as a headache struck him. 'I just wish we knew what was causing this. I hate seeing you in pain.'

Terra inhaled sharply as a fresh wave slammed through his head before letting the breath out slowly. 'You and me both.'

He waited for the pain to disappear but it only subsided to a level that was still noticeable but not debilitating, and sat up straight as the chariot performed another banking turn and began descending, coming into Ponyville.

'Is it too late to say I'd rather not be here?' Terra asked as the chariot flew over the small town, its residents stopping in the street to look up at the carriage as it passed overhead.

'Yes.' Celestia said, speaking for the first time since they had left Canterlot, seemingly preferring to let Luna and Terra talk amongst themselves for the duration of the trip.

'Thought so.' He said. The landscape in front of him momentarily morphed into a battlefield, smoke rising in thick columns from burnt out vehicles and corpses littered most of the ground, then quickly reverted back to the more peaceful scenery of Ponyville. Terra grimaced as pain swept through his head for the second time that day. 'And can I also say that my head is hurting?'

'How bad?' Luna said.

'Manageable.' Terra said back, jaw clenching and unclenching. 'For now.' He let out a low breath, trying to disassociate himself from the feeling of his head being simultaneously crushed and blown up.

'Tell me if it gets any worse.' Luna said as he chariot came in to land.

As he usually did, Terra was first off it and scanned the area for threats, an almost hardwired instinct of his. Behind the unicorn, Celestia and Luna stepped off it too as started walking up the dirt path to the farmhouse of Sweet Apple Acres. It looked bigger then Terra remembered, an extra wing added to the main building that was only distinguishable by the fresher coat of paint.

'Ready?' Luna whispered, nudging Terra as she passed.

'As I'll ever be.' he said, trailing behind the two Alicorns as the three of them headed towards the farm where a group of tables filled with food and drink had been set up, and gathered around was Twilight and her friends.

Applejack spotted them first and detached herself from the party, trotting over to the princess, giving a warm smile and a small bow as she came close before turning to Terra.

'Howdy.' Applejack said, the orange farmer stepping closer to the unicorn and shaking his hoof enthusiastically. 'Ah'm Applejack.'

'Terra.' he said once she'd let go of his hoof.

'Pleased to meet ya, Terra. Ah take it ya'll are the princesses new guard?'

'Yes, ma'am.' Terra said, trying his best to sound like he was telling the truth. If anypony could tell he was lying, it would be Applejack. 'Though technically, I'm Princess Luna's companion rather than a guard for her and her sister. I just act as one for them when they're out together.'

'Well, let's hope ya do as good a job as their last guard.' Applejack said, leading them to the waiting party.

'I'll try, ma'am.' Terra said, momentarily making eye contact with Celestia who gave him an expectant look as if to say he should tell them the truth. He just ignored it.

'Ya don't have to keep calling me ma'am.' Applejack said as they drew nearer. 'Ya can call me by mah name, if ya want.'

'Force of habit.' The unicorn said. 'I was a soldier before becoming Luna's companion.'

'Oh?' That seemed to pique the farmer's interest and she half turned to face Terra. 'Ah take ya must have been a good one if the princess asked ya to be her companion.'

'He was.' Luna said, dropping back to walk beside Terra. 'I wouldn't have chosen him if he wasn't.'

'I just did my duty, ma'am.' Terra said, flashing the Alicorn a faint smile before it vanished, his headache flaring up for a brief second. 'N-Nothing more.' It flared up again, stronger than before, and Terra found he was veering from the dirt path once it had passed. He quickly rejoined it, trying his best to act as if nothing unusual had happened despite Applejack's questioning look and Luna's more concerned one.

'Headache.' He said dismissively. 'It's nothing.'

'Are ya sure?' Applejack said. 'It looked like it really hurt ya, Terra.'

'I'm fine.' Terra said, grimacing as a third wave of pain swept over his head. 'It'll pass.'

Luna opened her mouth to speak but Terra stopped her. 'I'm fine.' He said, more firmly than he intended to and it sounded like he was being terse with the princess. 'Really.'

She closed her mouth and nodded. 'If... If you're sure, Terra.'

'Don't worry, I'll tell you if it gets worse. I promise.' Terra whispered as Applejack left them to speak with Celestia. 'Sorry I snapped at you.'

'It's alright.' Luna whispered back. 'You're just stressed because of what's been happening recently, and I know that visiting here won't have helped. Thank you for agreeing to do it, by the way.'

'When a pretty mare like you is the one asking, how I can I say no?' Terra said as his headache faded but didn't vanish completely, grinning at Luna.

'I don't know.' she said, her own smile forming. 'But as for your little... _outburst_ earlier, you're going to have to make up for it tonight.'

'Well, I think I know the perfect way to do that.' He said, placing a small kiss on Luna's cheek before both heard Celestia clear her throat, prompting them to look up to see that they'd reached the group and that everypony was watching them.

'Ah.' Terra said, coming to a halt.

For a moment, nopony said anything but the silence was soon broken by Pinkie as she let out a loud gasp, practically jumping up in the air as she did.

'You guys are a couple?' the pink mare squealed, bouncing over to the two.

'Uh, yes.' Luna said, taken aback by Pinkie's enthusiasm. 'We-We are.'

'Aw!' Pinkie said 'You look so cute together.'

'Not the word I would have used.' Terra said, grinning at Luna as he pressed his flank against hers. 'I can think of some others to describe her.'

She smiled back. 'But whilst we're around others, you're not going to say them, right?' Luna said, nodding her head at the crowd before them. 'Especially if young foals are around.'

'No guarantees.' Terra said but he did step away from Luna so they weren't touching and toned his expression down a little so that it was more calm, also trying to ignore the still present headache. It wasn't as bad as it had been, a dull ache at the base of his skull compared to the head-splitting tsunami earlier, but as Terra followed Luna and the others to the picnic he could swear it was beginning to start up again.

He did his best to ignore it as he and Luna sat down at one table, accompanied by Twilight and Michelle, her daughter named after Terra when he'd still been a human and going by the name of Michael. She looked up at him with golden eyes, as if trying to place him.

'So Terra, you were a soldier before this?' Twilight said, placing a plate full of food down in front of Michelle who began picking at and playing with it, making happy babbling noises as she did.

'Yes, ma'am.' Terra said, levitating a plate of food and a drink over. 'I was part of the 7th Royal Canterlot Defence Battalion, Manticore Company, during the final attack on Canterlot.'

'Where were you stationed?'

Terra opened his mouth to speak but saw Twinkie, Pinkie's son, out of the corner of his eye. The colt seemed healthy enough but there was still a thick scar running up the length of his back leg, a wound he'd received at the hands of Terra months ago when he'd been a human. Guilt rose up in Terra's chest and he closed his mouth.

Twilight followed his gaze and her own expression fell a little. 'That's Twinkie, Pinkie's baby colt.'

'How did he get that scar?' Terra asked.

'It was... It was an accident that happened, ages ago.' The mare turned away from the colt as he and Winona, Applejack's work dog whose fur was starting to gray around her muzzle, played in the yard. 'Sugarcube Corner was being robbed by these ponies and they were holding Twinkie hostage to make sure Pinkie cooperated when... Do you know who Michael Fletcher is?'

'Sure, he was that alien warrior who died at the end of the last war.' Terra said, hoping he sounded casual about it.

Twilight nodded. 'Yeah, that's him. Well, Michael was a close friend of ours and he happened to be in Sugarcube Corner at the same time as the robbery and he managed to stop it, but accidentally shot Twinkie as he did.'

'Looks like it was painful.' Terra said, tearing his gaze from the colt and to his food as Luna discreetly brushed her wing against his side, offering some level of comfort. 'How well did you know him?'

'Who, Michael?' Twilight asked.

Terra hummed a yes.

'Pretty well, I guess.' She said. 'He used to live here in Ponyville before...' Twilight trailed off, looking away and to her daughter, scooping the small filly up in a tight hug. 'Before we asked him to stop guarding us.'

'Why did you do that?'

'We had a clash of ideals about what friends should do and tell each other.' Twilight said. 'He was disappearing for days on end, receiving protected letters from the princess and refusing to tell us why. So we confronted him about it and Michael had us arrested, but it wasn't until he refused to apologise about it that we decided we didn't want him to look after us anymore.'

'Sounds like he was a stubborn ass.' Terra said.

'He could be.' Twilight said as she got Michelle another plate of food. 'But at the same time, Michael did care for us in his own way.'

'Like?'

'Well, he once snuck into the Griffin capital to _Covenant craft inbound. Please proceed with caution.'_

Terra just stared at Twilight, mouth agape, as he tried to process what she'd just said. It had started off with her talking about the time he'd gone to Griffonia with the express intention of killing Luthor after the griffin king had ordered his daughter to capture Twilight and bring her back to him, something that had led to the unicorn mare suffering a miscarriage at the claws of her captors. But part way through, her voice had changed from the warm tones Terra knew to a more flat and emotionless announcement he associated with computers.

'I-I'm sorry?' he said, tapping his ear to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

'He went into _Covenant craft approaching from the north, east and west. ETA three minutes.' _

Again, Twilight's voice shifted into the emotionless computer and even though her lips were moving, they didn't match what Terra thought she was saying. Worse, her outline rippled and wavered, and for a brief moment, she turned into a Brute then a Grunt, then back to a pony. Each time she did, pain slammed into Terra's head alongside two familiar yet unwelcome voices, resuming their arguments.

'Oh, god. Not now.' Terra whispered, backing away from the table as Twilight changed again, though this time it wasn't just her. Everypony else morphed into varying alien forms and the scenery kept flickering between a farm and a battlefield. 'Not now.'

'Terra, are you...?' Luna said, moving towards him with worry present on her face as she realised what was happening.

'Y-Yeah.' He stammered, the pain inside his head increasing. 'Bad.'

The ground beneath him continued to alternate before finally settling on the war-torn battlefield, blood and spent shell casings littering it as Luna wrapped her hooves around Terra, holding him close.

'It isn't real, Terra.' She whispered, running her hoof through his mane, now slick with perspiration as the headaches kept up their assault. 'Focus on me, nothing else. Whatever you're seeing, it's not real.'

'N... N-Not re-real.' Terra struggled to say, fighting through the pain, but it didn't seem to work as the battlefield remained. Worse, he saw the same two fillies from his dreams pop into existence.

The red one began splashing around in the puddles of blood while her blue counterpart looked at her with disgust.

'Re-al. Re-al. Re-al.' The red filly sang as she bounced around.

'No it's not.' The blue one said. 'Terra knows this and that's why he's still fighting.'

'He won't be able to keep it up for-ev-er!' Red said the last part as if it was part of a nursery rhyme, drawing it out.

'I-I-I can t-t-try.' Terra stammered, making Red laugh.

'You won't!' she sang back.

'I will!' he shouted.

'Terra, listen to me.' Luna said, using her hoof to make him look into her eyes. 'Whatever it is that you're seeing, fillies arguing or aliens, they're not really there. I am. Focus on me and nothing else. Just me. That's all you need to do.'

'Bu- But they're saying...' Terra started to say but stopped mid-sentence when he heard a bellowing roar off in the distance and he snapped his head around to the source. 'Scarab. No. No, no, no!'

A huge four-legged monster made of metal suddenly appeared crawling over the far hills, heading straight for the farm. A plasma cannon mounted on its head began charging and fired, a bright green lance of energy that carved a glowing path of molten rock in the ground.

Terra's body reacted without thought, pushing Luna off him whilst charging a combat spell and rushing towards the imaginary Covenant machine. All the while, Terra's brain was ordering his body to stop, knowing the Scarab wasn't there, but it was futile and the unicorn fired off his spell, a deep red lance of destruction that hit the Scarab and seemed to destroy it, the behemoth being there one second then gone to next.

'Yeah, that's it Terra!' Red said, still bouncing in pools of blood. 'Fight the Covenant. You know they're real.'

'They aren't.' Blue said, kicking a stone at Red. It missed.

'Are too.' Red shot back, sticking her tongue out as Terra began searching for more targets though his movements were becoming sluggish, mind slowly reasserting its control over his body.

'Are not.' Terra managed to gasp as Luna grabbed hold of him, using her magic to nullify his.

'That's it, Terra.' She whispered. 'They're not there. The Covenant isn't here. You're safe, I'm safe. We're both safe.'

'Bu- Coven- Sca-' The strength left Terra's legs and he collapsed to the floor, panting heavily as his headache finally subsided.

'N... No Covenant?' he asked weakly, staring up at Luna.

'No Covenant.' She assured him as the others gathered round, expressions ranging from disbelief to shock on all their faces with the exception of Celestia.

'M-Michael?' Twilight whispered after several seconds of scrutinising his features. 'Is that you?'

Terra swivelled his eyes to her, blackness creeping in at the edge of his vision. 'Sy-System has exper-exper-experienced and un-un-un- -ected fa-a-a-ault. Sh-Sh-Shutting doooooown.'

He fell limp and darkness swallowed Terra.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Five

'What's wrong with him?'

It had been three days since the incident at Sweet Apple Acres and in that time Terra had remained in a comatose state, the only thing that could make him react being pain but even then the response was sluggish at best. The doctors had been unable to determine what was causing the coma, or even how to rouse him it, and had simply moved him to a private room where they could keep an eye on the stallion in case he woke up or anything changed.

He was on the bed, eyes half open and mouth agape, staring at an arbitrary spot on the wall opposite him, unaware of the princesses or unicorn doctor that was accompanying them. Luna was lying next to Terra, a forlorn look on her face, while Celestia and the doctor were sat at the end of the bed.

'I'm not really sure.' the unicorn, a professor who specialised in coma cases by the name of Neighton, said as he examined a thick sheaf of notes. 'All the readings of Terra's vital signs indicate he should be coherent, or at the very least he should give a basic response to external stimuli like his name being called.'

'So why doesn't he?' Luna asked quietly.

'I... I don't know.' Neighton said. 'There must be something going on inside his brain, a kind of mental block maybe, that's keeping him like this.'

'Can you treat it?'

Neighton shrugged. 'Possibly, if I knew what it was that was going on inside Terra's mind. But to find out I'd have to merge with it, literally see his thought processes, maybe even go into his memories.'

'Are there any risks?' Celestia said.

'If things go wrong, yes.' Neighton said without hesitating. 'I could end up causing Terra to lose his mind, cause permanent retrograde amnesia of everything prior to this moment, or even stop his brain from sending the signals to his heart and lungs, killing him. It all depends on how his mind reacts to having a foreign entity exploring it.'

'How many times have you done it?' Luna said.

'Not that often.' Neighton said. 'A mind merge is required only in extreme circumstances, and they rarely appear. In my entire career, I've only performed six of them and had just one patient who suffered negative side effects.'

'What happened to them?' Luna asked, placing a small kiss on Terra's neck. He didn't respond to it.

'She... She died, I'm afraid.' Neighton said, looking down. 'Her mind tried to expel me and it caused the medulla oblongata, the part of the brain which controls the heartbeat, the simply shut down. I still don't know how or why it did, but-'

'So long as you don't do the same to Terra.' Luna said, looking Neighton fully in the eyes when the stallion brought his head back up. 'Just bring him back to me. Please.'

Neighton looked from Luna to Celestia who nodded. 'Do it, professor.' She said.

'Y-Yes, ma'am.' Neighton positioned himself in front of Terra, front hooves resting on the bed so both their heads were level with each other. 'But before I begin, can I just say that there is no guarantee that I can bring him back. This may even make things worse.'

'Noted.' Luna said, watching as the professor held his horn against Terra's.

'Okay, here goes.' Neighton whispered as he closed his eyes, a soft glow beginning to emanate from the tip of his horn that quickly encompassed Terra's. 'I'm going to start by skim reading the outer surface of his mind, see if anything is off.'

For several moments, Neighton was silent, making only faint movements of his head as he dove into Terra's mind. 'Lot of neuron activity, far higher than I would have expected from somepony in a coma, though only the sensory ones. Huh.'

'What?' Celestia asked.

'Sensory neurons tend to shut down when the patient is in a coma, that's why they don't respond to external stimuli, but Terra's... Terra's have the same activity level as if he was awake. Though the why is beyond me.' Neighton hummed, contemplating something. 'Maybe if I followed the source upstream.'

Another bout of silence.

'Oh, that is very strange.' Neighton said. 'They're not responding to an external source but to his memory. Strange indeed.'

'Can you access it?' Luna asked.

'I can try but it requires me to go into his mind directly, not just skimming the top like I am doing.' The unicorn said. 'This is where things start to get delicate.'

'Do your best, professor.'

'I will.' Neighton's face momentarily took on a strained expression as the glow surround his horn became brighter before subsiding. 'Alright, let's find out which memories are the source of your sensory input.'

'How are you going to go about that?' Luna draped her wing over Terra protectively as his eyebrows began furrowing slightly.

'Well, there's quite a lot of memory to sift through, nearly forty nears worth but- Okay, that's an unusual format to display them in.' Neighton moved his head from side to side, as if reading something from a book.

'Display what in?'

'His memories. Each of the patients I performed a mind merge on visualised their memories in a way that enables me to access them quickly and easily, most often a library or a filing cabinet that is either really tall or has really long draws.' Neighton explained. 'In Terra's case, his memories appear on a screen and are arranged into two categories: by date and by person. I can only assume that the first folder contains every memory Terra has while the second is more specific, containing his recollections of different ponies only and further divided into smaller subcategories.'

'Any idea why Terra thinks of his memories like that?' Celestia said.

'Must be a personal preference.' Neighton said as he began looking into Terra's memory, not seeing the stallion's brow furrow further. 'Our brains tend to develop subconscious self-images of themselves based on the pony's life experiences, which might explain why Terra said what he said when he first entered this coma. Everything in his head looks like a machine.'

'He isn't one, is he?' Luna asked, slightly worried.

'No, no. I can assure you that Terra is completely biological.' Neighton told the princess. 'It's just in his head that- Oh. Oh, my.'

'Did you find something?'

'You could, um, say that.' Neighton said, swallowing. 'I decided to start with the most recent of Terra's memories and work my way back from there and- Wow, okay that was, uh, never... never thought I'd end up seeing that. Wow.'

'Wow... what?' Luna said. She briefly glanced at Terra's face, concerned to see his eyes were shut and his vacant expression was turning into a scowl.

'I've, um, I've stumbled onto the memories of you and Terra having, well, sex.' Neighton made a surprised face. 'Three hours. Wow. You two have some stamina.'

'Get out of them.' Luna ordered, pulling Terra close. 'Now.'

'I-I'm trying.' Neighton said, head twitching to one side. 'But there's something wrong. He's starting to clump the memories, all the ones of you two together, into one central location and every time I try to get through them as quickly as possible, more appear and send me back to the beginning.'

A faint growl escape Terra's throat, his scowl turning more aggressive, complete with bared teeth.

'Professor,' Luna said. 'I don't think Terra is too happy about you going through those memories.'

'I can tell.' Neighton said loudly. 'His mind is starting to push me out.'

'Then let it.' Celestia said as Terra growled again, louder than before.

'Would if I could, ma'am.' Neighton said. 'But every new memory Terra stores here, it pushes me back in and I- Jeez, you guys can go like rabbits, can't you?'

'Un...' Terra said suddenly, voice low and dangerous.

'Professor.' Luna said again.

'I'm trying.' Neighton said back.

'Un...' Terra repeated, his horn starting to spark.

'Professor, leave. Now.' Celestia ordered, involuntarily inching backwards as Terra's horn continued to spark.

'I can't!' Neighton yelled, trying to yank his head away from Terra but their horns remained locked together. 'I'm stuck.'

'Unauthorised user.' Terra said in an angry tone of voice. 'Access denied.'

A burst of energy erupted from Terra's horn, catapulting Neighton away from him and Luna and into the wall opposite, the professor landing with a solid thump next to Celestia. The glow surround Terra remained for a second longer then dissipated and his facial expression reverted to a blank one.

'Okay, that's never happened before.' Neighton said as Celestia helped him up, the unicorn rubbing a lump on his head. 'Nopony ever had such a violent response to a mind merge.'

'Terra's not like most ponies.' Luna said. 'He's more likely to confront an invading entity than run away from it. I guess he saw you as one, especially when you looked at his memories of us being intimate.' She shot the professor a withering glare and nuzzled Terra. 'Were you able to see what was keeping him like this?'

'No, and I doubt I'll be able to do that now.' Neighton grumbled. 'Once a person's mind decides I'm a threat it'll resist my next attempt to go back in. And seeing how Terra threw me across the room to do that, I'm worried of what he might do next time.'

'Can you try anyway?' Celestia asked.

'Sure.' Neighton assumed his previous position before Terra had thrown him across the room. 'Let's start with another mind skimming then go from there.'

Neighton's horn glowed once again as he brought the tip of it into contact with Terra's, the unicorn's brow creasing as it did.

'Ooh, yeah. He doesn't want me in here.' Neighton said after a brief moment.

'Unauthorised user.' Terra said. 'Access denied.' Another burst of energy, smaller than before, pushed Neighton away from the comatose unicorn.

The moment their horns were no longer touching, Terra's expression reverted to the vacant one he had been wearing for the past three days, and continued alternating between this and his scowl each time Neighton tried to attempted to conduct another mind merge.

'Maybe he'll open up to somepony else.' Celestia said after the seventh failed try. 'Somepony that isn't you.'

'Worth a shot.' Neighton said, panting from the exertion of trying to force his way into Terra's head. 'Only problem is that the nearest pony who can perform a mind merge is weeks away at best. You'd be waiting a long time for them to get here.'

'That's not what I had in mind.' Celestia said. 'I meant either Luna or myself.'

'Ah.' Neighton said. 'Right. Yes, that could work. But, the spell needed to perform a mind merge is complex and-'

'We're fast learners.' Luna said, interrupting him.

Neighton opened his mouth to object but gave up, shaking his head in defeat. 'Very well.' he said, sighing. 'However, if anything goes wrong when you try to merge minds, to either of you or to Terra, I take no responsibility as this will be a quick lesson and you'll be attempting it without practising first. Understood?'

Both sisters nodded, giving Neighton to go-ahead to teach them the spell needed to merge minds with Terra and despite his earlier assurance that it would be a quick lesson, it was close to an hour later when he finished coaxing them on how to channel their magic the correct way and move through another pony's mind.

Celestia went first.

'Okay, now like I told you.' Neighton said as the Alicorn rested the tip of her horn against Terra's, a soft glow covering them both. 'Focus on maintaining the spell, nothing else, and let it draw you into his head. When it does, you should be able to see something that looks like a glowing ball of dust right in front of you.'

'Yes. Yes, I can.' Celestia mumbled, eyes closed as she concentrated.

'Good.' Neighton said. 'That's the outer surface of Terra's brain, where you can perform a skim reading if you wish. See all the coloured sections, and the threads between them all?'

Celestia nodded.

'They're the different parts of Terra's brain. Language, motor controls, emotion. Every aspect of him, from cognitive functions to physical control, is displayed here. The brighter the colour of the section, the more it's being used.'

Celestia nodded again. 'Now what do I do?'

'Look for a bright green section, somewhere near the front.' Neighton said. 'That's where Terra's long term memory is stored. I want you to think about opening it. Doesn't matter how you see yourself doing it, Terra will, hopefully, allow you access.'

The Alicorn's face scrunched up in concentration, just like Neighton's had done when he'd first accessed Terra's memory. 'It's showing me a screen.' She said after a few seconds.

'What's on the screen?'

'Authorisation pending?' Celestia said. 'What- Wait, I can feel...'

'Something inside your own head?' Neighton finished.

'Yes. The moment I tried to access his memories, it just-'

'Terra's scanning your mind, like you're doing to him, probably to see who you are and whether you can see his memory.' Neighton said, interrupting. 'He did it to me when I first went into his head. Don't worry, if he knows who you are then he should-'

'Unauthorised user.' Terra said flatly, pushing Celestia way with his magic. 'Access denied.'

'-let you in. Ah.' Neighton looked to Luna. 'Looks like it's your turn, ma'am. Let's hope his marefriend will have better luck.'

Luna swapped places with her sister and went through the same motions, placing her horn against Terra's, seeing the ball of gas and imaging herself opening the green section. A screen appeared with Authorisation Pending written on it, and Luna felt some other presence in her mind.

For what felt like minutes, the screen didn't change. When it finally did, the words changed from Authorisation Pending to Access Granted.

'I'm in.' she whispered as the screen changed again, displaying the two folders Neighton said it would. 'Now wha...' Luna trailed off as she sensed rather than saw a door fade into existence in front of her, behind the screen. 'A door just appeared.'

'A door?' Neighton said. 'What kind of door?'

'A metal door.' Luna said, the screen displaying Terra's memories fading as she focused on the new object. 'It says Operations Centre.'

'Operations Centre?' Neighton said, cupping his chin with his hoof. 'I won- Oh. Oh, my.'

'What? What is it?' Luna asked. 'What's behind the door?'

'If I'm right, Terra.' Neighton said, sitting down.

'I don't understand.' Luna began to say. 'I thought-'

'That you're already seeing Terra. In a sense, yes. You are.' The professor said. 'But by that same token, you aren't. What you're seeing around you in that ball of gas are the different parts of his brain, things like his memory and language centre. Essentially, these are the basic functions that Terra has access to.

'What you're not seeing is the intelligence behind it all, his core personality that uses the basic functions.' Neighton continued. 'Behind those doors marked Operations Centre is Terra's conscious self, the part of him that is capable of feeling emotions and making informed decisions. Behind those doors is the stallion you care for.'

Luna's head twitched sideways. 'What happens if I go through the door?'

'You'll meet him, of course.' Neighton said. 'A word of warning, though. The experience will be very intensive. It won't be like it is now, where you can speak with us while seeing his mind. It'll feel as though you're in the room with Terra. You won't feel stone beneath your hooves, unless of course that's what kind of room lies beyond the doors. Nor will you be able to hear Celestia or myself. To us, you'll go into a trance we can't wake you up from.

'In other words, you will be totally immersed in Terra's mind until you decide to leave or he forces you to.'

'Will there be any side effects when I come out?' Luna whispered.

'No clue.' Neighton said, sighing softly. 'This has only been done once and the results were lost during a fire before they could be widely distributed. All I can say is if you feel like something is wrong, then get out immediately.'

Luna nodded. 'What do you want me to do while I'm in there?'

'Get him to allow me access, if you can.' Neighton said. 'Otherwise, I can't help him get out of this coma or deal with his hallucinations.'

'I'll try my best.' Luna said.

'Good luck.' Celestia said, placing a hoof on her back.

'Thanks.'

Luna took in a deep breath then let it out slowly, focusing on seeing herself open the doors leading to Terra's core personality. It came closer then as it loomed over the Alicorn, they parted and a brilliant white light spilled out from the gap.

'Here goes.' Luna whispered, placing a tentative hoof into the light, followed by a second and a third until she passed the door's threshold and light engulfed her.


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Six

_It felt like she was falling the moment she stepped through the door, the stone floor just vanishing as it opened and the white spilled out, engulfing her. Vertigo gripped Luna as it did and she stumbled despite the lack of solid ground beneath her hooves, her condition made worse by the lack of both it and a visible horizon, before finally tumbling to the still non-existent floor, only to find that it had reappeared, now made of metal and cold._

_She pushed herself up and saw that the door was still there, standing less than two metres from her position and built into seemingly nothing. Either side of it was blackness, ditto for the above, and the floor in front of it was shaped like a pool just big enough for her to stand in. Beyond the edges was more darkness._

_Tentatively, Luna stepped closer to the door, flinching as it slid open when she did._

_The room behind the door was made of the same metal as the door and floor, dull grey, and had an open floor plan. To the left and right, along the walls, were monitors at regular intervals, each displaying a dial of some kind. There was a strip of colour, green on one end and red on the other with yellow in the middle, and a needle that hovered at varying points along it._

_Many were over the green section but were close to the yellow one, while a few were firmly in the yellow._

_At the far end of the room was a screen that took up most of the available wall space. It too was active but displaying something altogether different. Images were flashing across its surface, though of what Luna couldn't see from afar. What she could see, however, was the outline of a familiar stallion._

'_Terra?' she called out, taking a step into the room. It felt so real, but at the same time she knew it was just a visualisation of Terra's mind, and that they were both in Canterlot._

_The figure at the end didn't respond, he just sat there with his back to her, staring at the screen._

_Luna stepped closer. 'Terra? Can you hear me?'_

_Still nothing, even as Luna continued to call out as she closed the gap between the two, and as she drew closer, Luna saw that the images on the screen were of her and her alone, all from somepony's point of view._

'_Terra?' she tried again, coming to a halt next to the stallion. He looked tired, mane unkempt with bags under his eyes, and spent, like his willpower was gone completely, and it took Luna placing her hoof on his shoulder to make Terra respond._

'_I need help.' He whispered hoarsely, still staring dead ahead as the screen flashed through more pictures of Luna. 'My mind is starting to tear itself apart.'_

_A bar appeared at the top of the screen, four-fifths of which was green but the last bit was red. Beneath it read 'Fragmentation Level: 20%'. Terra glanced upwards at it and whimpered before looking down again._

'_What makes you say that?' Luna said as she looked up at the bar herself. _

'_I don't know.' Terra said. 'I just- It's a feeling, like there's something in my head that wants to be there but something else is against the idea.' One of the images suddenly flashed red and Terra moaned despondently as it vanished. 'And their clashing is wreaking havoc on everything else.'_

_Luna glanced back to the rows of dials, surprised to see two more of them entering the yellow zone as she watched. 'Like what?'_

'_Everything.' Terra said as a second image turned red. 'Every single aspect of my mind is suffering because of this... whatever it is that's going on.'_

'_Can't you stop it?' she asked._

'_I don't even know what's causing it.' Terra said. 'Nothing I do to find out the source of the conflict works. I searched every inch of my mind and came up with nothing.' Another red image, another whimper, this time tinged with defeat. 'I don't know what I can do to stop it. I don't even know what's going to happen _when _it does.' He sighed and both shoulders sagged a little. 'I just know that when it does, I won't be doing much of anything anymore.'_

'_So what's all this?' Luna motioned to the screen in front of them and to the pictures of her. 'Why is it showing me? And why are some images in red?'_

'_It's not showing pictures of you.' Terra said as the slideshow carried on. 'It's scanning my memories to see if they're corrupted or not, then saving the ones it can in a kind of internal black box.' He sat up a little straighter. 'If my mind is fragmenting, I want to be able to save something from it. This is what I'm saving.'_

'_But they're just memories of me.' Luna said. 'Why not save some of Celestia? Or of Twilight Sparkle and her friends?'_

_The slideshow came to a halt, scanning one last memory before replacing it with the words 'Transfer Complete' which were themselves replaced by hundreds of smaller images arranged by date. All of them displayed Luna._

'_Because they aren't you.' Terra whispered, looking straight at Luna for the first time since she'd arrived in the metal room. 'There's only so much space available in the black box, so rather than fill it memories of ponies who probably hate me right now, I filled with memories of the mare I...' He trailed off, voice cracking, and looked down at his hooves._

'_Care for?' Luna offered, placing her own hoof under his chin to raise Terra's head so their eyes met._

_He shook his head and leaned forward, placing a gentle kiss on Luna's lips. 'Love.' Terra breathed as they broke apart. 'Mare I love.'_

_Luna blinked as the words registered. 'Y-You love me?'_

'_I do.' He said, almost sadly as he stared up at the progress bar sat atop the screen. 'And all it took for me to realise it was to start my descent into a gibbering wreck.' Terra sighed as the energy seemed to drain from him. 'Aren't I lucky?'_

'_You love me?' Luna said again._

_Terra nodded, wearily. 'Yes. And I fully understand if you don't feel the same about me. I mean, who'd want to be with an emotionally scarred and traumatised stallion that has mild sociopathic tendencies and a history of violence?' _

_Luna didn't say anything, preferring to throw her hooves around Terra and hug him tightly, catching the stallion off guard but he soon recovered and hugged her back._

'_I love you, too.' She finally whispered._

'_Even with all my shortcomings?' Terra murmured as the hug ended. 'And the hallucinations?'_

'_Yes.' Luna said. 'And we've found somepony who can help you, Terra. He can help figure out what's causing them. You just need to let him in.'_

'_Was it that Neighton guy who looked through my memories?' he asked darkly, a frown replacing his warm smile._

'_He didn't mean to look at the ones of us.' Luna said gently. 'That happened by accident while he was trying to help you out.'_

'_He still looked through them.' Terra said._

'_And he knows better now.' She said, running her hoof through the unicorn's mane, disliking how ragged and limp it felt. 'If you let him in, I'm sure Neighton will skip right past the times we were... together.' Luna nuzzled Terra when his facial expression didn't change. 'Please. I want my special somepony back. It's lonely being in our bed all by myself.' She smiled and kissed the unicorn. 'So very lonely.'_

_Terra's frown faded, a lopsided grin taking its place. 'Anything for my lover.'_

'_Thank you.' Luna rested her head on Terra's chest and the stallion began running his hoof through her mane. 'Can I ask you a question?'_

'_Sure.' Terra said. 'Ask me anything.'_

'_Why did you stop Tia from seeing your memories? She knows we're together.'_

'_Doesn't mean I want her seeing some of the things we've done.' Terra said._

'_She would have understood.' _

_Terra looked down at Luna, arching an eyebrow. 'They're still private memories.' He said. 'Besides, how do you think Celestia would have reacted to the blindfold? Or our second night in Griffonia?'_

_The mention of both caused a faint blush to spread over Luna's cheeks. 'Okay, she would have understood most of them.'_

'_Sure.' Terra said._

'_So what now?' Luna asked after several moments of silence. 'Are you going to wake up and let Neighton try to find the source of your troubles?'_

'_I guess so.' Terra said, cricking his neck as he stood up. 'But the moment he lingers on any memories of us...' He let the threat hang in the air._

'_He won't.' Luna assured the unicorn. 'Just make sure you do wake up.'_

'_I promise.'_

The transition back to reality was much the same as the one to the inner mind of Terra, only with the added feeling of fatigue as metal was replaced with stone.

Luna felt her body slump as she opened her eyes to see the still comatose face of Terra mere inches from hers. As she watched, he blinked, slow and lethargic, coming back to wakefulness.

His blinked again, pupils expanding and contracting in the light, then let out a soft moan as his head dropped to the bed. Regaining more control over his stiff body, Terra focused on Luna's face and smiled, wan from lethargy, as she did the same.

'I love you.' He rasped, forcing himself upright. Bones creaked and popped, protesting at moving after three whole days of disuse.

'I love you, too.' Luna whispered and the two shared a brief kiss before turning to the other inhabitants in the room.

Neighton was curled up in the corner, fast asleep and occasionally grunting, while Celestia was sat in the other corner, watching as her sister and Terra started to move. It was dark, the room being illuminated by several candles that were half gone.

'How long were we out?' Terra asked, stretching out his legs as Luna stood up, unfurling her wings.

'Seven hours.' Celestia said as Neighton roused himself, the professor yawning widely.

'It didn't feel like it.' Luna said, jumping back onto the bed so she could lie next to Terra.

'Time must pass much slower when in that state.' Neighton said. He moved to stand in front of Terra. 'Now, are you ready to begin?'

Terra nodded. 'Just stay out of those memories this time.'

'Understood.' Neighton shook his head, clearing the last dregs of sleep from his system as he began preparing the spell needed to see inside Terra's mind. 'Any memories you don't want me to see, simply imagine a door or lock on them and I won't pry.'

He placed the tip of his horn against Terra's and both unicorns closed their eyes automatically, Neighton so he could see what he was doing, Terra so he could watch Neighton as he worked.

'Okay... Let's see if this time goes better than before.' Neighton began cocking his head one way, then the next with Terra mirroring each move, mostly out of necessity as their horns were locked together than anything else. 'Now then, memories. Which ones were causing the sensory input while you were out?'

For the next several moments, Neighton mumbled under his breath as he trawled through Terra's memories, searching for the mysterious source.

'Seeing quite a few locked doors.' He said. 'Guess you and the princess got up to a lot, huh?'

'You've already seen enough.' Terra said back. 'And it's only because Luna asked me to that I let you back in. Don't push it.'

'Just saying.' Neighton said. 'I didn't mean... anything by... it?' He opened and closed his mouth several times, shock and disbelief registering on his face. 'Oh. Oh, my. What- That's not- You can't- How...?'

'What?' Celestia asked as Neighton continued to babble, his disbelief only seeming to increase. 'What is it?'

'Terra has mem-' He stopped midsentence, coming across yet another memory. 'Oh, you know. Don't you? You know who he really is. That's why there's forty years worth of memories in a twenty year old stallion.' Neighton said. 'He's lived not one life, but two. You're him, aren't you?'

Terra said nothing.

'I don't know why I didn't see it when I first went inside here.' Neighton said. 'The mechanical feel, the advanced design. You were the only one who would have used this kind of technology and on a regular basis. You're him. You're Michael Fletcher, the Hero of Equestria.'

Terra grimaced. 'I was.' He said. 'A long time ago. But now I'm Terra, companion to Princess Luna. And that's what you're going to tell everypony.' He sent a jolt of energy into Neighton, making the professor yelp in pain. 'Right?'

'Bu-But you're a... a hero!' Neighton said, wincing as Terra shocked him again. 'They should know.'

'No. No they don't.' Terra jolted Neighton again. 'As far as anypony out there is concerned, barring a select group of individuals, Michael Fletcher died defending the princesses and the Elements of Harmony in the last war. And if he was alive, and I'm speaking _hypothetically _here, he probably just want to be left alone to his own devices.' Another jolt. 'You got that?'

Neighton whimpered but nodded. 'I got it.' he whispered. 'I got it.'

'Good.' Terra sent one final wave of energy into the unicorn before settling back. 'Carry on with your examination.'

'You didn't have to do that.' Luna said, scowling at Terra as Neighton composed himself after the former's assault.

'I have a right to privacy.' Terra said.

'And you don't need to hurt ponies to do it.' she hissed. 'I'm sure the professor would have agreed to keep quiet if we asked him nicely enough.'

It was more the tone of her voice than what she said that made Terra's ears flatten against his head and his mouth turned downwards. This was probably the first time Luna had scolded him for something and actually meant it. 'I'll try to remember that next time.'

'Make sure you do.' Luna turned to Neighton. 'I'm sorry Terra hurt you, professor. I thought he would have been more diplomatic in his approach.'

'No, no. It's... It's quite alright, your highness.' Neighton said. 'I partially expected it after seeing some of the things he did as Michael. Aggression must be a key part of him. Am I right?'

'Yeah.' Terra said. 'You any closer to figuring out what the source of that sensory input is?'

'Almost I think.' Neighton said, frowning. 'But the further back I go, the more jumbled and hazy your memories get. Like they're splintering.' He stopped for a second then nodded. 'Found the source. Looks like there's seven years worth of repressed memories here that are creating the sensory data.'

'Seven years?' Terra repeated. 'Wait, what do you mean repressed? Like they're buried in my subconscious?'

'Yes. That's it exactly.' Neighton said, a triumphant smile playing across his face. It soon faded, replaced by a more dour expression. 'But they don't seem natural to you. They feel artificial, like they were-'

'Implanted?' Terra said before Neighton could finish.

'Yes, do you know about them?'

Terra nodded, darkly. 'I do. A gift from my abductors when they brought me here.'

'Ah.' Neighton said like he understood. 'Yes, well, they're creating-'

A headache slammed into Terra's head, and due to the connection he shared with Neighton, the professor felt it too and both unicorns let out similar pained gasps.

'Fuck.' Terra grunted. 'Not again.'

'Are you seeing anything?' Luna asked, her earlier disdain gone as concern took over.

'Just the occasional Grunt with the odd Brute thrown in. Nothing serious.' He grunted again, as did Neighton.

'Wha- What are those things?' Neighton whispered, afraid. 'Where are they coming from?'

'That's what I was hoping you could tell me.' Terra said as the headache subsided. 'Don't worry, those things aren't real. They're just hallucinations I've been having.'

'Yes, but-' Neighton stopped. 'Oh, that's where... But why-?' Another pause. 'Oh. Oh, dear. That's not good. Not good at all.'

'What?'

'That hallucination, I managed to track where it was coming from and, well, it came from the repressed section of memory.' Neighton said. 'I'm not entirely sure on this as I've never come across anything like it before, but from what I can glean from it and your overall mental state, I think your mind is rejecting the implanted memories.'

'Rejecting?' Terra said, confused. 'Why? They've been in there for well over a decade. Why try and get rid of them now?'

'It must have been to do with your transformation into a pony.' Neighton said, muttering something under his breath. 'Yes, these memories were designed to be implanted into your old brain and while your other memories managed to make it through the process of turning you into a unicorn unscathed, these ones didn't, most likely because they aren't natural to you.'

'And how is that causing the hallucinations?' Celestia asked.

'Because the implants don't want to be rejected. They're fighting to stay where they are.' Neighton tilted his head to the side, trying to figure out the best way to explain it. 'All biological systems have a kind of immune system, right? A hostile or unknown organism enters the body, the body does its best to remove it. Well that's kind of what's happening to you, Terra. Only the invading entity doesn't want to go and is actively resisting. In this case, by trying to imprint itself onto your memory directly so that it is a natural part of you.'

'I'm guessing my mind really doesn't like that.' Terra said flatly.

'Unfortunately, no.' Neighton said. 'It doesn't. The hallucinations are a direct result of the implants forcing themselves into your long term memories by overlapping with your conscious perception of the world in an attempt to be recorded alongside it. The headaches, I'm afraid to say, is your mind's attempt to counter that overlap. What happened three days ago must have been a battle of sorts between the two and it proved to be too much for your head to handle so it shut down to protect itself from damage.'

'Could it be causing some other problems, not just hallucinations?' Luna asked, wrapping her wing around Terra as his face fell.

'Yes.' Neighton's own expression took a turn for the worse. 'Judging from a skim reading, as the conflict goes on, both sides will draw processing power from Terra's higher brain functions to bolster their own capacity, causing fragmentation of those functions until the level is so high, his brain will, effectively, lock up.'

'I'll be brain dead.' Terra whispered.

'I'm sorry, but yes.' Neighton said gently. 'I'd estimate that around a fifth of your overall functions are fragmented to some degree, and it'll be another three months before full fragmentation.'

'Th... Three months?' Terra stammered as Neighton ended their connection though only the latter opened his eyes.

'At most.' He said. 'Stress and casting particularly strenuous spells may accelerate the process, possibly cutting my estimate down by half, maybe more.'

'Is there nothing you can do?' Luna said as Terra kept repeating three months under his breath.

'No. Memory removal is a very delicate procedure and I don't have the skill to perform it.' Neighton said apologetically. 'I might be able to confer with my colleagues and associates, see if any of them can do it, but the time needed to meet with each one or even organise a conference will leave us with a very small window to act.'

'Three months?' Terra whispered as he finally opened his eyes but they were unfocused, staring at nothing.

Neighton simply nodded.

'You mean it'll take nearly three months to assemble everypony you know?' Celestia said.

'No, it'll take around one and a half.' Neighton said, turning to her. 'The risk is that the more fragmented Terra's mind becomes, the more firmly those memories will lodge themselves in his head. Beyond fifty percent, they'll be too entrenched to remove without damaging his mind in the process.'

'Three months...?' Terra said a third time, though his tone was turning darker, angry even.

'Terra?' Luna whispered. 'Are you okay?'

'No.' The stallion said loudly, shaking his head. 'I've been through some shit in my life, dying twice along the way, and sacrificed pretty much everything I had and this is the thanks I get?' He stood up, legs shaking from being in the same position for so long, and stumbled off the bed, weaving from side to side as energy began to crackle from the tip of his horn. 'I finally admit that I love you and now I've got less than three months with you before I'm effectively dead? No. I'm not alright. Not by a fucking long shot.'

The energy continued to crackle, growing too, as Terra began stomping up and down the length of the room. 'Even though she's not here, Moore still manages to fuck my life up.' He lashed out with his hind leg, smashing a bedside cabinet and showering everypony with splinters. 'I hate that mother fucking bitch.'

With a blinding flash and a scream, Terra vanished from the hospital room, only to reappear in the middle of the Canterlot maze in another one, though it was more akin to an explosion, and even before the last bit of light had faded, Terra began laying waste to everything in sight, all the while continuing to screen as benches and hedges were smashed and burnt to a crisp.

He had no idea how long it was before he became too exhausted to carry on, but the end result of his localised rampage left the centre of the maze looking like a war zone. There were burnt stubs where the hedge walls had been and the carefully maintained ground was torn up with craters marking the final resting place of many benches, and as Terra stared out over the destruction, sweating from the exertion, he collapsed to the ground, sobbing.

'Tell me I've lived a good life.' he croaked to a nearby figure that had shown up part way through his anger-induced destruction. 'Tell me I deserve a better fate than this.'

The figure made their way through the debris and lay down next to the stallion, wrapping them in a comforting embrace. 'You deserve better.' She murmured, running a hoof through Terra's mane. 'If anypony deserves a good life, it's you.'

'So why haven't I?'

'I don't know.' Luna said. 'But we will find a way to get you one.' She shushed the stallion as he continued to sob. 'One way or another.'


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Seven

The next few days blurred into one, at least from Terra's perspective they did. He had become distant following his breakdown in the Canterlot maze, mutely following Luna and giving soft grunts by way of answer to anything asked of him, eyes blank and dead as Neighton continued to examine his mind, keeping track of the fragmentation level which he eventually managed to enchant a crystal ball to display, before the professor left the castle to assemble his colleagues.

In the meantime, he advised both Luna and Terra to avoid stressful situations and, in an aside to the former, keep the latter's spirits up as a possible method of slowing the fragmentation down, but given how little Neighton knew about what was happening to Terra he couldn't offer them any expert advice, something that did little to fill either Terra or Luna with optimism, so he simply suggested that one way to reduce the potential for stress was to stay in a small house in the countryside near Ponyville.

So they went a day after Neighton left, arriving at a wooden cottage a few miles up the road from Ponyville but on a road that was seldom used by the town's inhabitants.

'I'm screwed, aren't I?' Terra finally said after a week of silence as he lay on his and Luna's bed in the cottage, staring at a fixed spot on the wall opposite while she read a novel next to him. 'Neighton's not going to be able to find a way to cure me and I'm going to wind up an empty shell that can't die.'

'No.' Luna said gently, putting her book down. 'No, you won't. Neighton is going to find a way to deal with those memories. He will, Terra. He will. You just need to keep going until he comes back.'

'And when he doesn't?' Terra said back, despondent. 'Or comes back and I'm too far gone? What then?' He sighed and let his head drop to the bed. 'I don't want to get my hopes up only for them to be smashed. I've had enough misery in my life already.'

'That kind of thinking won't help.' Luna said as Terra turned away from her. 'You heard what Neighton said. A positive attitude might help slow it down.'

'I don't care.' Terra muttered. 'Every time I do something good, something else comes along to ruin it. Help defeat the Gravemind? Get stuck here to be used as a pawn in some elaborate scheme. Defend Equestria from all manner of threats and dangers? Public turns on me the moment I accidentally hurt somepony while being attacked by another. Finally get a chance to live a normal life? Brain starts splintering.' He snorted. 'So you tell me why, after all that, I should have any optimism left. At all.'

'Because you kept going.' Luna said. 'Despite all of that, you kept going. At any point, you could have just given up and cracked. But you didn't. You marched on, taking everything in your stride. Why is now any different?'

For a long moment, Terra was silent, just staring at nothing before letting out a resigned breath, his whole frame seeming to deflate. 'I've reached the end of my rope. That's what's different.' He finally mumbled. 'I did everything that was asked of me and what did I get? Nothing but more misery. Ten solid fucking years of it.' Another sigh tinged with defeat. 'All those years and nothing. Maybe I don't deserve a good life. Maybe I did something wrong and now I'm paying for it. Whatever the reason, I just- I can't. I can't keep going. I've not got anything left.' Terra shook his head sadly. 'That's what's different.'

'What about me?' Luna asked quietly. 'Aren't I something? Or am I just part of your ten years of misery?'

Terra's ear twitched and he turned back to look up at Luna, eyes refocusing. 'No. You're not.' He whispered. 'You're the best thing that's ever happened to me.'

'So why did you say you have no reason to keep going?'

'Because...Because... I don't know.' Terra said, looking away. 'My head is all over the place and I can't-' He stopped, swallowing hard as a solitary tear formed and began creeping down his cheek. 'I'm scared, Luna. For the first time in my life, I'm scared.' A hollow laugh escaped Terra's lips. 'I've-I've faced down huge monsters and taken on hundreds of enemies all looking to kill me and I didn't even bat an eyelid. My mind starts to lock up, it happens.' He laughed again but it soon descended into sobs. 'I-I'm scared.'

'And there's nothing wrong with that.' Luna whispered as she placed her hoof on Terra's shoulder. 'You have every right to be. You just don't have to be scared alone. I'm here for you, Terra.'

'I don't want to go.' He sobbed, pulling her into a tight embrace, head resting on her chest. 'I want to stay with you. With my special somepony.'

'Then why aren't you fighting to stay?' Luna said, running her hoof through Terra's mane. It was ragged and limp, reflecting its owner's current state. 'If you want to stay with me, then you have to keep your hopes up. Don't you?'

Terra nodded. 'I... I-I do.' He sniffed and sat up, wiping tears from bloodshot eyes. 'But what if-'

Luna shushed him, placing her hoof on his lips to silence the stallion. 'Neighton will find a way, and he will find it before your mind becomes too fragmented, he has to. I don't want you to leave us.'

'Us?' Terra repeated, brow furrowing in confusion, especially when a smile began forming on Luna's face. 'What do you mean by 'us'?'

'I'm pregnant.' She whispered, smile breaking out in full force as she took her hoof away from Terra's mouth. 'I... We're having a foal, Terra. We're going to have a foal.'

'A foa...?' Terra tried to say, blinking rapidly as his mind attempted to process what Luna had said. 'We-We're having a foa...?' His mouth opened and closed several times in shock, varying emotions playing across his face, surprise and disbelief for the most part, then settled on excitement as he wrapped Luna in another hug, hooves thrown around her neck. 'We're having a foal!'

She hugged him back, tears of her own forming. 'We are. That's why you need to keep going. I don't want our foal to be raised without its daddy.'

Terra laughed a little, more joyful than before. 'Daddy. I like the sound of that.' He sighed and nuzzled Luna's neck. 'How far along are you?'

'Just a few weeks.' She replied. 'I only found out the other day.'

Another soft laugh came from the unicorn as he let go of Luna and gave her a small kiss. 'Guess now I have two things to keep me going. You, and your little surprise.'

'Three things, actually.' Luna said. 'Our foal can't be born out of wedlock. It will be royalty, after all.' She lay on her side and allowed Terra a chance to run his hoof over her stomach, around where their foal would be.

'Of course.' He murmured, a content look on his face as he trailed his hoof up and down. 'We wouldn't want that.' A yawn escaped his lips, prompting Terra to lie flat next to Luna, leg draped over her protectively. 'Princess Luna, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?'

'Yes.' Luna said, turning in his embrace to rest her head on his chest. 'I will.'

'I love you.' Terra whispered into her ear as her breathing became softer.

'I love you, too.' She whispered back before drifting off to sleep.

Terra smiled, feeling his own mind start to feel sluggish, but it quickly vanished when a small blue circle faded into existence in the bottom left-hand corner of his sight. Two yellow dots were in the centre of it, one slightly to the right of the other, while dozens upon dozens of red dots surrounded them. Instantly, a rock formed in Terra's gut as he recognised what it was. A motion tracker.

'No.' He said, looking around the room and out the windows. Woodlands surrounded the cottage, a screen of trees that blocked sight of the house from a passerby but, at the same time, meant anypony sneaking up on it could do so with a relatively low chance of being detected, and as Terra stared out the windows he caught sight of several black shapes moving between the trees. The rock turned into a mountain.

'Luna, wake up.' Terra said quietly, shaking her awake. 'Wake up. Now.'

She groaned and cracked an eye open, then both snapped open when Luna saw Terra's expression. 'What? What is it?'

'Trouble.' Was all he managed to say before something black came smashing through one of the windows, sending both ponies diving for cover.

Terra jumped back up, combat instincts kicking in as the thing got back up, then leapt straight for it, hooves outstretched and a snarl on his face. They connected with a sickening snap, followed by several more as Terra began pummelling the intruder until green, gooey blood started to spurt from it, followed by a pained, almost animalistic scream which was abruptly stopped when Terra brought his hoof smashing down on the creature's head, crushing it.

He got off the body, some small part of his mind absently noting it was his first kill in months, as well as his first as a pony, and went to the window, seeing masses of the creatures surrounding the small cottage. 'Oh, shit.'

'That's a changeling.' Luna said, staring at the corpse as she got up from where she had been hiding.

'Was.' Terra said as he continued to stare out the window. 'Was a changeling. It's dead now.'

'Where did it...?' Luna joined Terra in looking outside, sentence dying as she too saw the huge numbers of the insect-like creatures, each one snarling and growling up at the two. 'Oh.'

Terra charged up a combat spell before unleashing it, a red beam of destruction that incinerated half a dozen of the changelings in one go. 'Luna, get out of here. Get back to Canterlot. Now.' He fired off another spell, this one in the shape of fan that cut down dozens. Unfortunately, dozens more took their places and then charged the cottage, the collective beat of their hooves sounding and feeling like an earthquake.

'Move, Luna.' Terra barked, knocking her down to the ground as three changelings flew in through the smashed window, only to be blasted out of the air by Terra as he shielded Luna from them.

'Bu- What about you?' she said, staggering to her hooves as Terra moved off her.

'I'll be fine.' he said as another three changelings rushed them, only to explode in a shower of green blood and body parts as the stallion put them down with a powerful blast. 'Just go. Both of you.'

From below came the sounds of splintering wood as changelings threw themselves against the front door, as well as smashing glass as more windows were broken to allow them access. Terra fired one last spell out the window then turned and ran for the door leading into the bedroom, pressing his weight up against it as changelings began throwing themselves at it. Cracks began to appear in the surface.

'Luna, for the last. Fucking. Time. You need to get out of here.' Terra said, grunting with each impact. 'I can't hold them back forever.' A particularly powerful impact caused the door to jump slightly and Terra responded by slamming back. 'Please.'

'Okay.' Luna whispered, her horn beginning to glow as she started to cast a teleportation spell, but before she could cast it eight changelings flew in through the open window and dove for her.

Terra saw them and leapt for Luna as well, tackling the Alicorn to the floor just as the changelings reached her. Sharp teeth tore through his back and Terra grunted, partly in pain and mostly from annoyance, as he and Luna landed with a heavy thud.

The changelings hovered in the air and made another run at the two.

'Not this time.' Terra snarled, the wounds on his back vanishing in a golden glow as his horn turned a deep, rich red and a cone of destruction erupted from the tip, engulfing them all and atomising each in a blinding flash amid screeches of pain.

But before he could turn to see if Luna was okay, the door leading into the room finally gave up the fight and exploded in a shower of splinters and angry changelings, the latter of which quickly swarmed the downed unicorn as the former liberally coated everything in the room.

An onslaught of hooves and fangs kept Terra on the ground, every wound he received trying to close itself after four seconds but the sheer volume of the attacks was overwhelming his regenerative capability to the point that he could feel himself growing cold from blood loss.

He also felt himself start to grow angry, horn beginning to crackle with energy that arced out and inflicted burns on the nearest changelings.

'Get. Off. Of. Me.' Terra snarled as the energy continued to grow. Somewhere inside his head, an alarm began to sound and words flashed in front of his eyes.

_System in Danger of Catastrophic Damage. Combat Protocol Alpha Engaged._

A blinding light engulfed Terra, throwing off the changelings with such force that when they collided with the far walls they left blood splatters and didn't get back up again.

Terra, on the other hand, did, the light that covered him slowly fading to reveal his body once more.

Only, it wasn't the same. Where there had been gaping wounds and blood, there was thick, durable looking armour that covered him completely, the styling of it almost an exact duplicate of the MJOLNIR armour he had once worn as a human. It was steel grey with blue highlights here and there, and a golden visor covered his face.

Terra looked down at his hooves, shocked at his new appearance while at the same time, nodding appreciatively, especially at the Spartan Lasers hanging from his sides and a six-barrelled rotary cannon sat on his back.

He grinned at the remaining changelings as they backed away from him, his mouth the only thing not covered by the armour. 'You guys are in so much shit right now.'

With a whir, the cannon on his back spooled up and Terra unleashed a hailstorm of bullets, the origin of which was a mystery to the armoured stallion as he couldn't see an ammo counter for the weapon on his HUD, something Terra found he had missed, but then he was just as mystified as to where the armour had come from.

Putting it down to yet another side effect of the Elements of Harmony resurrecting him and fusing the human with his old armour, Terra focused back on the main threat and activated his Spartan lasers, blasting clear holes through two unlucky changelings while the cannon on his back continued to spit lead at a staggering rate, its muzzle flash lighting up the room as green sticky blood splattered across all the walls.

As the remains of the last changeling fell to the floor with a sickening squelch, Terra looked round in hopes of spotting Luna but saw nothing but disembodied limbs, spent brass casings and chunks of wood.

'Luna?' he called out, taking a tentative step forwards, voice amplified by the armour.

'Terra!' she screamed back from somewhere outside. 'Help!'

His head whipped round to the window and saw two changelings dragging a struggling Luna away from the cottage, her legs and wings stuck together by some green gloop.

He reacted without thought, charging for the two kidnappers just as they were taking flight, their victim carried between them, blasting a large hole in the wall with his lasers and jumped to the ground below, creating a solid thump as he landed, then began galloping after the flying insects.

'GIVE HER BACK, YOU BASTARDS!' Terra screamed, activating his helmet's zoom to accurate target the changelings without accidentally hitting Luna and fired off twin lasers that holed the changelings completely, carving a neat tunnel that went all the way through their spines and exited in the middle of their faces.

The moment he did, all three airborne figures dropped to the ground and Terra increased his speed, managing to leap and catch Luna before she could hit the ground then positioned himself so it would be him that would take the brunt of the impact when they landed.

Metal scraped across dirt and rock as they finally touched down, bouncing once or twice, before coming to an abrupt stop at the base of a tree. Leaves rained down on the two as Terra slowly let go of Luna, his armour vanishing in another flash of light.

He groaned in pain. 'You alright?' Terra asked, wincing as he tried to move. The injuries the changelings had inflicted were still there, but now that he was no longer under constant attack they quickly healed themselves, leaving only blood behind.

Luna groaned in pain too, tentatively moving away from Terra and onto flatter ground.

'Hey, you okay?' Terra said when Luna didn't respond, wobbling to his hooves. He still felt a little woozy from blood loss and tired after his fight, but the Alicorn's lack of a response was setting off alarms in his head. 'Luna?' He gently tapped her shoulder then took it away again when his motion tracker reappeared and displayed a hostile contact right in front of him.

'Oh, yes.' Luna said, standing up. 'Perfectly fine.' Her outline suddenly burst into green fire, revealing the insect-like body of a changeling underneath, its fanged mouth turned upwards in a horrible attempt at a grin that ended up closer to a grimace.

'N-No.' Terra whispered, backing away from the creature. 'No!'

The changeling chuckled, a horrid sound that possessed a demonic undertone. 'Yes.' It hissed, pointing at a far gone speck in the western sky. 'She is ours now, pony. Her and your foal.'

'No.' Terra whispered a second time, hooves automatically starting to move in the direction Luna had been taken. 'No, no, no!' He began to run but was so fixated on the distant speck, Terra failed to see the changeling rear up and deliver a kick powerful enough to send him sprawling and cause his vision to be filled with stars.

'You failed.' The changeling hissed as he stood over the dazed unicorn. 'You failed to protect her and now your precious Luna is gone forever.' It laughed and raised a single hoof up, positioning it over Terra, then brought it crashing down over his head.

It was the last thing Terra saw before blackness swallowed him.


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Eight

He didn't know how long he had been out, though it must have been a while because the moon was out and high in the night sky. For some reason, though, it didn't look quite as nice as it could have been. The stars were dull, lifeless, and the moon itself looked like somepony had made it greyer than usual, replacing the brilliant white.

Terra stared up at it for a while, lying on the dirt road and covered in blood, both his and from changelings. His body ached and any small movement would send pain flaring through it. Slowly, and with great care, he got back up, trying his best to ignore the throbbing pain in his legs and head.

Wincing, Terra made his way back to the cottage to survey the damage. Every ground floor window was gone, the frames smashed and widened to allow the horde of changelings in, and the front door was lying further inside, snapped into two pieces. He stepped over it, taking care to ignore the splinters, and headed upstairs.

It wasn't in much better condition than downstairs. Whatever the changelings had missed with their hooves, Terra made up for with his cannon and lasers, filling the walls with massive gaping holes. Smoke drifted from one or two of them and from the corpses of some changelings that had been blasted by the twin lasers, filling Terra's nostrils with a foul stench that did little to lift his spirits as he combed through the wreckage for a small crystal ball, the same one Neighton had enchanted to keep track of his mind's fragmentation.

By some miracle, it had survived the carnage unscathed and Terra brought it up to eye level, squinting in the darkness to make out what it said.

FRAGMENTATION AT 34%. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL FRAGMENTATION: 59 DAYS.

Terra dropped the ball with a thud. This morning it had read 25%, and that he had two and a half months left before it reached one hundred. In the space of one day it had jumped up by nine percent and lost sixteen days. He tracked the ball as it rolled away, watching as it came to a halt in a drying pool of changeling blood, then let out a dejected breath.

He really was screwed. Even if Neighton and his colleagues managed to find a way of curing him, they'd be too late to do it. The memories would be too firmly implanted, and removing them would cause more harm than good.

Fifty nine days. That was all he had left. Not even two months until he would be in a permanent coma or worse. He tore his gaze away from the crystal ball and let it fall on the gaping hole in the wall, to the countryside beyond. The dead bodies of all the changelings he'd killed were still there, including the two that had distracted him, allowing the two that had the real Luna to escape.

Terra stared at their bodies for a while, chiding himself for falling into their trap.

'It wasn't your fault.'

He looked down and saw Blue standing next to him while Red pranced in the pools of blood, her hooves not even making a splash.

'It was.' Terra said to Blue as he began walking out of the room and back downstairs. 'I didn't stop to think and now? Now she's gone.' He sighed. 'And our foal.' He went out the house. 'I failed.'

'You suuuure did.' Red sang as she materialised on front of the stallion, grinning like a maniac. 'Luna and Terra, lying on a bed. Tricked by a changeling then kicked in the head. Lost his baby, lost mare, taken off to who knows where!'

Terra did his best to ignore the hallucination, picking up the path into Ponyville.

'You've never fought changelings before.' Blue countered, talking over her opposite as she started dancing around the pair. 'You couldn't know that they'd trick you like that.'

'Is that supposed to make me feel better?' Terra said. 'I didn't think when I heard her scream. I just charged after her. If I'd looked around, I might have seen her. The real Luna.' He brought his hoof down on the head of a changeling, crushing it with a sickening pop.

'Even if you did, what good would it have done?' Blue walked around a corpse while Red did a little dance on one. 'They were miles away by then. There was no way you could have gotten to her.'

'I could have tried.' He muttered but deep down knew Blue was right. The changelings had been small specks in the sky and flying at a faster speed than he could run.

'But you didn't!' Red said as she walked in front of Terra. 'Now Luna is lost forever, making her lover cry and shiver!'

Terra glared at her but it did little to dissuade the blood red filly. 'Why are you two even here?'

'We're here to keep you going.' Blue said. 'I am, at least.'

'Well I'm here because I love making fun of you!' Red proudly proclaimed. 'Terra the stallion, Terra the fail! Lost his fiancé, now hear him wail!' She giggled and laughed as they walked on, making up more rhymes about Terra and singing them.

'And why would you do that?' Terra asked, looking down on Blue. 'I don't even know what you are.'

'That's a bit of a tricky question answer.' She said. 'I guess you could say that we're manifestations of your mind, representing two different parts of it. I'm what you'd call your self-worth, the part of you that thinks highly of itself and wants to live a happy life.'

'And her?' Terra nodded at Red.

'She's your self-loathing, the part of you that hates itself.'

'Thought as much.' Terra muttered as Red continued to spout rhymes.

'What are you going to do?' Blue asked after a moment of silence.

'Take a wild, hundred-to-one-shot, lucky guess.' He said as the came onto the main road leading into Ponyville. 'I'm going to find Luna. I'm going to rescue her. I'm going to make sure that the fucktard son of a bitches that kidnapped her experience an amount of pain so unlike anything they or any living creature has ever felt before, that the fury of an exploding supernova will be considered a sweet, sweet mercy compared to what I'm going to do to them.'

He picked up the pace a little as a scowl crept onto his face. Blue and Red effortlessly kept up with him.

'But you don't know where she is.' Blue said.

'I can find out.' Terra said back.

'No you won't!' Red sang.

He ignored her but came to a halt when Ponyville came into view. Smoke rose in thick columns from the town, the fires that created them engulfing buildings and casting a hellish orange glow over everything, and Terra could hear faint screams drifting over to him, carried by the wind.

'Oh, shit.' Was all he managed to say before all four hooves broke into a gallop, Blue and Red vanishing as he did.

As he drew closer, Terra could see the citizens of Ponyville fleeing in all manner of directions, chased by familiar black shapes that tackled some to the ground but left others alone. Any that tried to fight the changelings off or save somepony were viciously set on by others, in many cases ripped to shreds by the insects.

Light engulfed Terra as he entered the town, armour once again flashing into existence. The rotary cannon on his back spooled up instantly, its whine lost amid the screams and crackles of burning wood. What wasn't lost, however, was the roar of it firing, spewing hundreds of rounds a second into the mass of changelings.

Terra was roaring too, in anger and from the adrenaline surging through his system, all the while mowing down changelings as they appeared. The lasers on his sides were firing too, accurately taking down the creatures as they flew through the air or tackled ponies.

Oddly, they only seemed to be going after unicorns, or mares that were mothers, while attacking anypony who tried to stop them. Terra just filed it away for later thought as he carried on through town, not sure where he was going.

His motion tracker was a mass of solid red with the occasional yellow speck thrown in.

'Target count!' he yelled, all three of his weapons combining to obliterate a single changeling.

'Over three hundred.' A disembodied voice answered him.

Terra had never expected anything to reply. He'd just called out a command on a whim, the armour still being a relatively new concept for him but knew enough about his old set that voice commands could operate different things. As it turned out, it worked.

Then a chilling realisation swept through him. Pinkie Pie and Twilight were both mothers. Both lived in Ponyville. Both Twilight and Rarity were unicorns. Changelings were attacking Ponyville. Changelings were going after mothers and unicorns. All three were at risk.

'Locate all Element of Harmony Bearers!' Terra ordered, skidding around a burning building. 'And mark on the HUD.'

'Bearers located.'

Six waypoints appeared in front of Terra's eyes, five of which were clustered close together but the sixth was well away from them. The changelings had gotten at least one.

'Identify isolated Bearer.' He angled away from the lone marker and headed to the remaining five ones at a dead sprint, throwing up a plume of dust behind him and gouging huge chunks of dirt with each hoofstep. Evidently, the armour also augmented his strength, too.

'The Bearer of Magic.' The suit replied. 'Current range from present location is five kilometres and rising, and will be outside of sensor range within thirty seconds.'

Terra swore, blasting a burning cart out of his path and charged through the debris, then leapt over a large crater in the middle of the road. He landed with a solid thump, never breaking stride as he pressed onwards. If he remembered correctly, the direction he was going would take him towards Sweet Apple Acres.

A changeling appeared in front of the speeding stallion, fangs bared. Terra simply increased his speed and lowered his head, using the horn on his head to skewer the winged insect then blew it apart with a spell, covering everything within a large radius in green blood and body parts.

More followed and suffered similar fates, none of them managing to stop Terra as he barrelled through them all, cannon firing and lasers blasting nonstop. His muscles burned, his breathed was heavy, but none of this was at the forefront of his mind.

The six markers became five. 'The Bearer of Magic has left sensor range.'

Terra swore again as he broke free of Ponyville, smashing through a cluster of changelings that were heading to Sweet Apple Acres. In front of him were dozens more and the cannon went into overdrive, tracers giving the illusion of a laser as it chewed the closest targets to pieces.

Even through his armour, Terra could feel the heat of the barrel and worried it might become too hot and shut down.

Ahead, the main house of Sweet Apple Acres loomed, the windows crudely barricaded by any means necessary and where they weren't, changelings fought to get in but were stopped by the house's inhabitants. Terra saw the red hooves of Big Macintosh buck two away from one opening and Applejack's orange ones at another.

He blew through the wooden fence surrounding the farm, screaming at the top of his lungs, and got the attention of every single changeling on the farm.

'YOU BASTARDS ARE NOT TAKING ANYONE ELSE, YOU FUCKING UGLY SON OF A BITCHES!' Terra carved a path to the front of the house, laying waste to countless changelings, then assumed an aggressive stance as he turned to face the horde.

His lip curled upwards, growling, as they stopped. 'Come on then if you think you're man enough. I got more than enough ammo for each and every single fucking one of you twice over.' The rotary cannon kept spinning. 'Let's see who has what it takes to bring down Michael Fletcher, Hero of Equestria and Warrior of the Elements of Harmony. A man who took on demons from another planet and came out smiling.' Terra pawed at the ground, getting ready to fight. 'So come on. Bring it.'

The changelings hissed at him but none came any closer. In fact, many were backing away, retreating.

'Thought so.' Terra said, taking careful aim at the nearest changeling the fired twin blasts from his lasers and cut the creature's legs out from underneath it. As it fell, he resumed firing the cannon, shooting at the changelings as they fled and preventing them from retrieving their fallen comrade.

He kept up the assault until they were all gone and his motion tracker was clear aside from the crippled changeling that writhed in pain just a few metres from Terra, surrounded by the dead bodies of its kin.

When the last changeling was gone, Terra allowed his armour to vanish and sagged to the wooden porch beneath him, his legs giving out.

Behind him, the door leading in the farmhouse slowly opened and heavy hoofsteps approached Terra as he panted. 'Are ya'll okay?' Big Macintosh asked.

'Not...Not by a... Not by a long shot.' Terra wheezed before blacking out.

He came to on a soft bed, wrapped in a thick blanket smelling faintly of apples inside a plain looking room. His entire body ached and Terra groaned in pain. The curtains had been drawn but he could still see a sliver of light escaping into the room around their edges. He'd been out all night.

Moving with care and mindful of his tender muscles, Terra eased himself out from under the blanket and slid to the floor, landing with a solid thump which set more pain coursing through his body.

'Ow.' He groaned weakly, taking the time to find the strength necessary to move. Pushing all feelings of discomfort as far down as he could manage, Terra slowly got to his hooves and stood up, weaving from side to side.

From somewhere below him, he could hear the muffled tones of conversation and the cries of a foal, and he remembered Twilight had been taken by the changelings. It was Michelle that was crying.

Wincing with each step, Terra made his way downstairs and into the main living room where the remaining five Element Bearers, Big Macintosh, Spike and the two foals were sat. They all looked up as he entered the room but none said anything, even when Terra eased himself down to the floor.

'Where did you leave the changeling?' Terra asked, breaking the silence.

'In the barn.' Applejack said sullenly.

'Is it still alive?'

'Far as Ah know.' She looked to him, Michelle between her forehooves. 'That's the truth.'

Applejack placed an added emphasis on the second part as she bored into Terra, glaring at the unicorn.

He picked up on it.

'I wanted a fresh start.' Was all he said, looking away from the farmer as the others turned their attention to him.

'By lying to us?' Rarity said. Her usually immaculate mane was a mess, pieces of it all over the place, while a particularly nasty gash trailed down her back, covered by a rudimentary bandage. Everypony in the room sported some kind of wound, even Spike. Only Twinkie and Michelle were free from injury.

'I...' Terra began. He sighed. 'Yes.'

'Why?' Rainbow Dash said next, her left wing held in place by a splint.

'It's... complicated.'

'So start explaining.' She replied. 'You've got a lot to make up for, lying to us all.'

Terra looked at her then down at his hooves, expression forlorn. 'I didn't want you to see me as a soldier again.' he said quietly.

'Why would we do that?' Pinkie Pie said, her left eye swollen shut, her mane deflated and flat.

'Because that's how I saw me.' Terra said. 'And I thought everypony else did, too.'

'Now why in tarnation would ya think we'd see ya as nothing more than that?' Applejack said as Michelle continued to cry out for Twilight.

'Look at it from my perspective.' Terra said to her and to the others. 'All I did for ten years was be a soldier. I had no social life outside of it. No hobbies, no friends other than you and the princesses, nothing. From the moment I woke up to the moment I went to sleep, I was on the clock. After a few years, it began to wear me down. After ten, I was tired of it but couldn't imagine myself as a civilian. It had been too long.

'So when I came back, I felt I'd end up doing the exact same thing because I didn't know any different. That was... _difficult _to deal with.' Tears started to form in the corner of his eyes but Terra blinked them away. 'When I finally broke down, let everything inside me come out, Luna was the one who helped pick the pieces up, started putting me back together, and for the first time in a long while, I felt happy.' He fought back the rising tears but it was a losing battle and soon they were rolling down his cheek.

'I didn't want any reminders about my old life. Not my name, not my weapons, not my exploits. I wanted to leave it all behind, to let it be buried with Michael Fletcher. He was the soldier.' Terra sniffed and wiped away a tear. More took its place. 'I wanted to be normal. So I never told anypony about my resurrection. If I did, they'd just constantly talk about what I did as a human. As a soldier. That's why I didn't say anything. I was afraid you'd do just that.' He let out a long, juddering breath as he voice began cracking. 'Now it doesn't even matter. Luna's gone and I won't be able to see our foal, even if I get her back.'

The dam walls finally broke and he began crying in earnest, curling up into a ball.

'They took her too?' Big Macintosh said quietly.

'Y-Yeah.' Terra sobbed. 'She-She'd just told me she was pregnant and we... I proposed and Luna accepted and-and-' He gave up, letting out an anguished cry. 'She's gone! I-I failed her. We were going to be married and I failed her!' He descended into indecipherable wailing after this, body wracked by huge sobs.

The only pony to move to try and comfort him was Fluttershy, the small Pegasus looking even smaller next to Terra as she placed her hoof on his shoulder, gently shushing it, only to let out a surprised squeak as he pulled her into tight embrace, sobbing uncontrollably. It brought up old memories from over a decade ago when Terra had been in a similar state and he had hugged Fluttershy then, not letting go, and it was only down to the depressed atmosphere filling the room that she didn't blush.

For a moment, the cries of Terra and Michelle were the only sounds filling the air, but the monotony was soon broken by a single belch and plume of green fire coming from Spike, a scroll arriving from Canterlot. He picked it up and unfurled the parchment, quickly reading over the contents.

As he did, the little dragon's eyes went wide and his breathing became more rapid each time he read the message until he was almost hyperventilating.

'What is it, Spike?' Rarity asked.

'It's from Shining Armour.' Spike said quickly, still clutching the letter tightly. 'He says Canterlot was attacked by changelings and...' He took a deep breath. 'He says Princess Celestia and Cadance have been kidnapped.'


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Nine

It took Terra a while to calm down and longer still to let go of Fluttershy, finally releasing the Pegasus after close to an hour after first grabbing her. She quickly moved away from him, shaking out cramped legs and flexing her wings.

Terra just stared at a distant spot on the floor, listening to the others as they described the beginning of the changeling attack.

The insects had descended on Ponyville like a swarm of angry locusts just as it was getting dark, going after unicorns and mothers with a ruthless single mindedness. Anypony who tried to stop them, or even happened to get in their way, the changelings tore to pieces in the pursuit of their targets. Within minutes, the population of the town had dropped by a third. Within ten, it was down by half.

Blood ran in rivers through the streets and flames engulfed entire houses, creating fresh panic and chaos as the inhabitants were caught between putting the fires out or saving their families, each choice wrought with dangers and the chance of injury or worse. Then the changelings had gone after Twilight, Pinkie Pie and Rarity.

All three had been in the middle of Ponyville, trying to help in some way when an entire horde of the insects had dove for them and it was only down to fast hooves and a considerable amount of luck that they had made it back to Sweet Apple Acres. Two of them, anyway.

Twilight had just set hoof inside the door leading inside when two changelings grabbed her, tearing the mare away from Big Macintosh as he reached out to close the door behind her, urging her to move quicker. The stallion had let out a faint cry when Applejack told Terra this, Michelle doing the same from between her aunt's forehooves.

'And then ya'll showed up, cannon blasting them to pieces left, right and centre.' Applejack finished. 'When ya collapsed to the ground after they left, we took ya inside and wrapped ya up. Didn't know what else to do.' She paused. 'What are ya going to do with that changeling in the barn?'

'Interrogate it.' Terra said quietly. 'By any means necessary.' He groaned and stood up, stretching his legs out. The pain he'd felt this morning hadn't gone away and a few of his joints cracked and popped.

'Sounds painful.' Spike said, wincing at the noise.

'I've suffered worse.' Terra said. His body was still covered in dried blood, barely visible against the dark grey coat that covered him while his mane was more of a mess. Clumps of it hung everywhere, held together by the gooey blood of changelings and his own, long since dried stiff. He knew he should wash it off, wash off the evidence that proved he had failed, but Terra couldn't find the motivation to do so.

He shook his head and made for the door leading back out into the farm.

'Don't hurt it.' Fluttershy said as he reached the door, making the stallion pause. 'Please.'

'I'm going to do much more than just hurt it.' He said back coldly. 'And anyone who tries to stop me, I'm going to do it to them as well.' Terra threw the door open with his magic and marched with purpose to the barn, nearly ripping the twin doors leading inside it off their stout hinges to shed light on the changeling.

It was tied up, a noose wrapping the changeling's wings to its sides while the four stumps that used to hold legs flailed uselessly in the air. At the sight of Terra, the changeling began hissing at him as he came closer, hooves making dull thuds on the hay covered floor.

Terra came to a halt in front of the changeling, staring down at it as it continued to his at him. 'I know you can speak.' He said. 'And I know that you know what's going to happen to Luna, to Twilight, and to all the other ponies you've kidnapped. Only thing I don't know is how you're gonna tell me.' He levitated a nearby screwdriver and saw over, holding them before the changeling. 'You can either say what you know now, or I force it out of you. Slowly. Painfully. For as long as I possibly can. The choice is yours.'

'You wouldn't dare.' The changeling hissed. 'Nopony in this pathetic land would ever resort to such... _barbaric _methods.'

'Try me.' Terra said back. 'I'm not from here, not by a long shot, and you've just taken the only pony I've ever loved away from me. I will burn your skin until it is raw then run the coarsest file I can against the wound and rub salt into it afterwards. I will jam metal spikes into your pathetic stumps and run cables from them to a power generator and shock you for hours. I will tear your wings, your horn, your teeth from their sockets and throw you into a vat of acid.' He leaned closer, lip twitching upwards as he began whispering. 'I will enjoy making you suffer. I will enjoy thinking of new and creative ways of causing you pain. I will enjoy hearing every scream of pain that escapes your wretched mouth. I will _not _feel the slightest shred of remorse as I am doing it.'

Terra stood up, watching the changeling as it glared up at him, wings twitching beneath their bonds. 'So go ahead you worthless piece of shit. Make my day.'

For the briefest of moments, it looked like the changeling would keep its mouth shut and Terra inched the screwdriver and saw closer until it began to speak. 'They serve our queen.' It finally said, eyes locked onto the two implements, the slightest hint of fear in them. 'All of them, the unicorns, the mothers, the mothers to be, they all serve our queen.'

Disappointment washed over Terra's face as he lowered the tools. 'Serve her how?'

'By providing her with the food she needs to grow stronger, to help her rule this entire planet.' It said. 'They provide our queen with energy, both love and magic, and she will not stop until all fall beneath her.'

'Then she should have thought of that before she took Luna.' Terra growled. 'Where did you take her?'

'Somewhere you will never find, pathetic pony.' The changeling said, trying its best to stare Terra in the eye. 'The Alicorn of the Night is lost to you.'

It lost an eye by way of a response. Terra didn't even change his facial expression as he jabbed the screwdriver into the blue organ and ripped it out, trailing blood and what remained of the optical nerve. The changeling howled in pain as he let it drop to the floor, squashing it with his hoof.

'Where did you take her?' Terra asked again, holding the now bloodied screwdriver in front of the changeling's remaining eye. 'Tell me, or I will blind you. Next time you don't cooperate, I start working my way through the fifteen and counting tortures I have in mind for you.' He positioned the tip a scant inch from the eye, closing the gap with infinite slowness. 'Where. Did. You. Take her.'

'Never.'

The second eye went the same way as the first, yanked out then squashed as the changeling let out a banshee wail. Terra smacked it with his hoof.

'Tell me.' he said as the changeling began whimpering, sightless, two bloodied holes where its eyes had once been.

Still the changeling refused to tell him. Terra stabbed one of the stumps where its leg had been and worked the tool around, aggregating the wound. The next time it didn't speak, he ripped a wing off. The third time, the other one came off. By the fifth lack of an answer, the changeling was a sobbing wreck, missing its eyes, its legs, it wings and its horn while Terra used the saw to peel a layer of skin off, the process made all the more excruciating by the jagged teeth of the saw, designed to cut through hard wood and subsequently had a low number of large teeth to cut with.

Terra used it to slice off a thick section of the changeling's hide, a jar filled with paint thinner following to pour the contents onto the raw skin beneath. Screams of pain echoed throughout the barn, its floor now slick with green blood. But even with this, the changeling refused to tell Terra where Luna had been taken to so he decided to adjust his approach, use a more invasive method.

Downing the saw and jar, Terra propped the changeling up as much as he could and placed the tip of his horn against its head, right where its horn should have been before Terra had ripped it off.

The tip of his horn glowed, powering up the same spell Professor Neighton had used to delve into his mind, something Terra had picked up as Neighton examined him by simply observing and performing a quick scan of the other unicorn's mind as they had merged.

His method wasn't as subtle as Neighton's who used a delicate, almost tender approach to enter a pony's mind. Terra was more akin to a missile strike, slamming his entire presence against the wall of the changeling's mental defences, crushing them with one blow. He moved like a lightning bolt, scanning the insect's mind for the information he needed.

Only it wasn't there, just a feeling of being a single node on a larger network drawing knowledge from a single point. The information Terra wanted wasn't here, in the changeling's head, it was further along the stream. It made some sense now, why changelings referred to themselves in the plural when there was just one of them present. They were a collective intelligence, a hive mind controlled from a single point, almost like the Gravemind and the Flood.

Redirecting his focus on following the stream to the source, Terra applied the same approach to it as he had done during his initial entry into the changeling's mind. He encountered similar attempts to stop him but they weren't enough, providing mere annoyances as Terra pressed onto his ultimate goal with all the speed and power he could muster, turning from a missile to a hyperkinetic slug, until finally reaching his final destination.

_He landed with a thud onto a warm, damp cave floor, his view of it blocked by a swirling mist that ran past his legs and onto parts unknown. He couldn't see any walls or a roof, just a sense of infinite space._

_Terra got up, unsure of when he'd gone from Sweet Apple Acres to this place, wherever it was, and instinctively looked around for threats, a combat spell powering up._

_A demonic laugh cut through the damp air, causing Terra to spin around in a vain search._

'_Who's there?' he yelled into the darkness that surrounded him. 'Show yourself.'_

'_Now why would I want to do that?' he voice said back, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. There was an odd quality to it, like there were two voices speaking just out of sync with each other. 'Hiding is so much more fun.'_

'_Then you're a coward.' Terra said back. Hiding made no sense to him. His philosophy was to confront everything head on, no matter the size or number of the enemy. 'And I don't like dealing with cowards.'_

'_What are you going to do if I don't?' the voice asked. 'You're just a tiny, infinitesimal speck piggybacking on one of my children in that backwater town of Ponyville. And there's nothing you can do.'_

'_You'd be surprised at what I can do.' Terra said as his horn glowed even brighter, a wave of energy erupting from the tip and spreading out to clear away the mist and darkness, making the voice cry out in pain. He knew from when Luna had entered his mind that was a mental projection of somepony's inner mind, where they made all their decisions. If he could damage it, then theoretically he could hurt the pony it belonged to._

_But by that same token, it meant he could be hurt as well and from some far away place, Terra heard an alarm sound and the words 'FRAGMENTATION AT 40%' follow it. Casting and maintaining this spell was causing a massive strain on his already taxed brain. Keeping it up would speed up the fragmentation. He needed to act fast._

'_Show yourself or I get dangerous.' Terra said as the mist flowed back to cover the floor, an angry hiss answering him. He simply began powering up another combat spell, larger than before._

'_Fine.' The voice said, now coming from a single point in front of Terra. As he watched, a pony faded into existence that was almost as large as him, boasting a long horn filled with holes and two see through wings wrapped around the middle, and had a feminine body. The queen of the changelings._

_She hissed at him a second time once her form had solidified. 'Happy now?'_

'_I will be once you release Luna.' Terra said. 'Otherwise, I am going to make it my mission in life to make yours as fucking miserable as possible.'_

_FRAGMENTATION AT 45%._

'_You? A pony?' the queen scoffed. 'One whose brain is splintering as we speak?' She laughed. 'Please. I've faced tougher opponents than you before.'_

'_Not like me, you haven't.' Terra began edging closer to her. 'Check Luna's memories. Check Celestia's. Search them for references to me, as a human and as a pony. Then you'll see what you're up against.' He took another step closer. 'And when you've done that, think about what I've got to lose.'_

_FRAGMENTATION AT 50%. The end of the line. From here, the memories would be too firmly embedded and removing them would cause too much damage. From here on out, Terra was a walking corpse._

'_Since you kidnapped Luna, I've got nothing left _to _lose.' He continued. 'My mind is too far gone to be saved and in the time I've got left, you can be damn sure I'm going to do my best to get back my fiancé and my foal so they can live a long and happy life. The only thing standing in my way is you.' By now, Terra had closed the gap between him and the queen, the two of them barely a foot apart. 'What do you think I'm going to do to rectify that?'_

'_I could kill them.' she said. 'Then what?'_

_FRAGMENTATION AT 55%._

'_I avenge them.' he said as though it was obvious. 'If you kill them, if you so much as lay one hoof on Luna, I will make sure that I submit you to the most cruellest punishment ever devised by anypony ever, and I will draw it out for as long as I can.'_

_FRAGMENTATION AT 60%._

_Terra could feel his mind start to feel sluggish, the thought processes breaking down, and knew he could only keep this up for a little while longer. 'I'm going to say this once, and only once. Release Luna and everypony you've taken or I will find you, and I will kill you.' He stared directly into the queen's cat like irises, waiting for her to make the decision._

'_I'd like to see you try.'_

'_As you wish.' Terra dove for the queen, knocking her to the ground and forced their horns together, sparks flying from the tips as he forced his way into her inner mind, draining every scrap of information he could from her._

_FRAGMENTATION AT 65%._

_She tried to force him out, resisting Terra's intrusion._

_FRAGMENTATION AT 70%._

_He tried to stay, searching until he found what he was looking for._

_FRAGMENTATION AT 75%._

_Terra finally came across what he wanted, the location of where Luna and the others were being kept. He logged it and leapt off the queen, running as far away from her a he could, no entirely sure where the exit to this place was._

He came back to the land of the conscious with a jolt, breathing heavily as he changeling before him keeled over, dead, its head burned out by the magic Terra had poured into it and his subsequent battle with the queen.

Terra slowly got up, legs wobbling beneath him as he made his way back to the farmhouse. Overhead, the sun was high in the sky. Lunchtime, a fact that was confirmed when his stomach let out a hungry growl. He managed to make it to just inside the farmhouse where everypony else was still sat, looking at him.

FRAGMENTATION AT 80%. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL FRAGMENTATION: EIGHTEEN DAYS.

'I know where they are.' Terra said before blacking a second time in just as many days, his body collapsing from exhaustion.


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Ten

'We're going with ya.'

Terra glanced over his shoulder at Applejack and the others as he prepared two saddlebags with supplies, the farmer acting as a spokesperson for them all. He turned away and levitated a thick blanket wrapped around several cans of food into one of the pockets.

'No.' He said. 'You'd only slow me down.'

'Would not.' Rainbow Dash said.

Terra glanced at her broken wing then at everypony else's wounds. 'None of you are well enough to go out and march to the changeling stronghold, let alone fight.' He said. 'And that's what we're going to be doing. Fighting.'

'Like ya'll are any better.' Applejack said, yanking the saddlebags away from Terra. 'Ya passed out twice in one day, ya wince every time ya move, and ever since ya little 'talk' with that changeling, ya mind has been all over the place! Ya need somepony to go with ya.'

He yanked the bags back. 'I'm fine on my own.' It wasn't quite the truth. Terra's body hurt, a negative side effect of his armour. Using it left him feeling tired and aching all over. Every step would send fresh waves of pain, varying from dull to sharp, racing through him, and his mental capacity was greatly diminished. His mind would often wander, or lose track of time completely, and Terra found his temper would flare up over the smallest of things.

'You're not the only one who lost somepony, Michael.' Shining Armour said. He had arrived from Canterlot, bloodied and bruised, around an hour after Terra had passed out following his session with the changeling, recounting the attack on Canterlot to him when he woke up.

Terra glared at the Captain of the Royal Guard. 'It's not Michael, it's Terra.' He said quietly. 'Michael died months ago.'

'No, he didn't.' Shining Armour said. 'He's just hiding from who he really is.'

'And for good reason.' Terra muttered, turning his back on the unicorn. 'Michael was nothing more than an unstoppable killing machine with no chance at normality, scorned by one group and hated by another. Why would I want to be him when Terra has a much nicer life?' He stopped and looked down, sighing. 'Or he _had _a nicer life.' He shook his head and carried on packing. 'That's why my name is Terra.'

Shining Armour went to say something but Spike stopped him.

'Don't.' The little dragon said. 'He really doesn't like being reminded he was Michael and he's not exactly emotionally stable right now.' Spike risked a glance at Terra, the stallion staring blankly into the distance as he finished packing the saddlebags. 'Just call him what he wants to be called, okay? It'll be a lot easier for everypony involved.'

Terra levitated the now full saddlebags onto his sides, wincing at the weight being placed on his still sore back, and shifted to get them as comfortable as possible.

'We're going with ya.' Applejack said a second time.

'I've already said no.' Terra said. 'You would all just slow me down and none of you are in any state to fight.'

'They've gone up against changelings before.' Shining Armour said, stepping in front of Terra as he moved towards the door. 'They know what they'd be going up against.'

'You sure about that?' Terra said. 'Were the changelings this violent and murderous when you faced them the first time?'

'Well, no.'

'And did they kill any?' Terra jerked his head in the direction of the girls behind him.

'No.' Shining Armour said.

Terra scoffed and turned to face the others. 'Would you be prepared to kill changelings if you came with me?'

They gave varying answers but none were clear on whether they would or not.

'None of you are prepared to kill a changeling. None of you are in any state to even go into a fight.' Terra said once they had all fallen silent. 'So why should I take you on this thing?'

'Shining Armour was the one who said it, Terra.' Rarity said, coming forward. 'You aren't the only one to lose somepony. We all have. Twilight is our friend, and so are the ponies the changelings kidnapped. We have just as much of a right to go as you.'

'Besides,' Rainbow Dash said, standing next to the unicorn. 'Even if you say no, we're still going. You can't stop us from following you.'

Terra looked at each of them in turn, seeing resolution in all their eyes, even Spike, and saw the futility of trying to dissuade them. They were going to go, no matter what. He grunted. 'Fine. You can come. But I'm not going to wait for anypony. You lag behind, you get left behind. And you will do exactly what I say, no matter what. We clear?'

They nodded.

'Then go gear up. We leave in an hour.' He stopped Spike as he went past, placing a hoof in front of him. 'You're not going.'

'What?' Spike said, looking up at the unicorn. 'Why?'

'Michelle and Twinkie.' Terra said. 'They can't be left on their own. You're staying on the farm to look after them.'

Spike started to argue but Terra silenced him. 'We can't take them with us and we can't leave them alone. You're too small to be useful in a fight and I'm not planning on using the subtle approach when we do. It's going to be bloody, violent and chaotic, an easy place to lose track of a full grown pony, to say nothing of a baby dragon. This way, I keep all three of you safe. And that's that.' He looked down on Spike until the dragon dropped his gaze and went over to the two foals.

'You didn't have to be so mean.' Shining Armour said as he walked over to Terra. 'I thought this new you was supposed to be nicer.'

'He was.' Terra said. 'Then a bunch of changelings kidnapped his family so Terra went away.' He turned away from Shining Armour and started to go outside, passing Big Macintosh as he brought out a pair of saddlebags for himself and Applejack. 'Guess you can be happy now. Michael just came out of hiding.'

Over the next hour, Terra used the time to finally wash off the blood that had been covering him since the changelings had attacked the cottage over a day ago. It came out slowly, stubbornly resisting his attempts and staining the ground beneath him when it finally did. He didn't manage to get it all out, just enough to look presentable. He didn't manage to wash away the feeling of failure.

'You did all you could.' Blue said, fading into existence as Terra shut down the pump he had been using.

He hummed. 'Too bad it wasn't enough.' Terra said as Red joined Blue, rolling around happily in the bloodied mud and thankfully not saying anything. 'I've still lost her.'

'But at least she'll be able to raise your foal in safety.'

Terra sighed. 'I know.' He levitated his bags into place, once again wincing at the weight being placed on his back. The front door of Sweet Apple Acres opened and the girls, alongside Big Macintosh and Shining Armour, came out, wearing saddlebags of their own. 'Doesn't make it any easier to deal with.'

'Ready?' Shining Armour asked as he trotted over.

'As I'll ever be.' Terra said as the two fillies vanished. 'Just keep in mind that if anypony drops out, or can't go on, I'm leaving them. We've got five hundred miles or so to cover, and just over two weeks to do it in. I want to get there within seven days.'

'You want us to do nearly seventy miles a day?' Shining Armour said after a moment to work out the total mileage.

'No, _I'm_ goingto do seventy miles a day.' Terra said as he began walking. 'You and everypony else is going to try and keep up.' Then, to the girls and Big Macintosh as he passed by them, said, 'This is your last chance to back out and stay here. It's not going to be easy and anypony who can't cut it, you're on your own.'

None of them backed down, falling in behind Terra as he struck out towards the Everfree Forest, jogging slightly to keep up with his long strides. As they passed Ponyville, several members of the ravaged town took notice and joined the group. They were soon followed by more until there were nearly two dozen ponies following Terra, most of them Earth ponies and Pegasi and all wearing determined looks in their eyes.

Terra said nothing, grunting in displeasure as they entered the wild undergrowths of the Everfree Forest. He had spent a lot of time in the foreboding woodlands, having walked through it for the best of a year after a diplomatic trip to Zebrannah, the Zebra homeland to the far west of Equestria, had gone awry. Terra, while he was still a human, had thrown himself from a speeding chariot containing himself and Luna into a river below to give her and the Pegasi pulling the chariot a chance to get back to Canterlot.

He hadn't enjoyed the trip. Dense undergrowth, towering trees and unforgiving terrain had served to slow his pace to a crawl, dragging the eight thousand mile journey into a yearlong slog through the worst terrain on the planet.

And now he was leading almost thirty civilians, none of whom had any experience in dealing with broken ground, through it and towards a stronghold filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of enemy combatants all looking to stop them from freeing everypony they had kidnapped. Add into this limited food supplies and a lack of preparation on the newcomer's part, Terra expected no more than a quarter of them to make it all the way to the end and that was being generous.

'Aren't I lucky?' he muttered as the light of the sun was cut off by the overgrown branches and leaves of the trees. Behind him somewhere, a pony had already begun to complain. Terra gritted his teeth. Pain, he could deal with. Overwhelming numbers? Not a problem. Whining idiots who joined an expedition to far off places with little to no forethought or preparation? If the trip didn't kill them, Terra probably would if they made too much of a fuss at his pace.

'If you don't mind me asking but, why the rush to get to Chrysalis?' Rainbow Dash asked, jogging next to Terra.

'Who?' he said.

'Chrysalis.' The grounded Pegasus said. 'The changeling queen.'

'Aside from the fact that with each passing day, she's getting more ponies to feed on and is consequently getting more powerful?' Terra said. 'No reason.'

'There has to be something.' Rainbow Dash said, prying. 'You're not just pushing us hard because Luna was captured, are you?'

'I'm pushing _me _hard.' He said. 'You and everypony else is just tagging along.'

'That doesn't answer my question.'

'That's because I didn't answer it.' Terra said. 'Yes, Luna is part of the reason but she's not the only part.'

'Your foal?' Rainbow Dash guessed.

'That's part of it, too.' Terra said. 'But not all of it.' He walked on for a few paces, silent, then sighed. 'The main reason is that my mind is breaking apart, splintering. I've got less than eighteen days before everything in here locks up.' He tapped his head. 'The more splintered it gets, the worse I'm going to be.'

'You seem okay.' Rainbow Dash said.

'Not really.' Terra said. 'I can't keep track of time as well as I used to do, my attention drifts if I'm not focused on something and my temper is provoked by the littlest of things. I'm sure that pretty soon, more things are going to go wrong. Motor controls, speech, logic. Right up until it finally happens. Then I'm probably going to fall into a coma.' He paused. 'Again.'

'Can't you do anything about it?' Rainbow Dash whispered.

'Not anymore.' Terra said. 'Complex spells or stress only speed up the fragmentation. I've done and suffered both over the past two days, pushing the levels well beyond what can be considered safe. All I can do now is find Luna, save her and our foal, then rip Chrysalis to shreds. And if I've got any time left afterwards, I'm going to spend it holding Luna.' Tears began creeping from the corners of Terra's eyes and his voice started to crack. 'Because fuck knows if I'll be able to do it again.'

They walked on for a few more moments, Terra blinking away tears as Rainbow Dash looked at him.

'Do you know what's causing it?' she said, breaking the silence. From somewhere behind them, another pony voiced a complaint. Terra ignored it. 'The splintering?'

He nodded. 'Some memories that were implanted in my head from before I came here are being rejected, but they're fighting to stay which is causing the problem. Apparently, they were designed for a human brain which I don't have anymore.' Terra brought his hoof down on a thick branch that had fallen to the ground, breaking it in two. 'Guess Moore failed to take that into account.'

'I'm sorry.' Rainbow Dash said after a few seconds, looking away from Terra.

'For what?' he said. 'You didn't kidnap me.'

'No, but it was because me and the others that you were brought here in the first place.' She said, keeping her gaze on the floor. 'If we hadn't been in danger, Colonel Moore wouldn't have had to take you away from your home in the first place and you wouldn't have gone through everything you went through, and those memories wouldn't have placed in your head.'

Terra glanced at her then back to the path in front of them. 'Neither of us had any choice in the matter. Some bitch from a different race entirely did, though, so don't apologise. It was her fault, and hers alone.'

'I'm still responsible.' Rainbow Dash said as she brought her head back up. 'Maybe not directly, but I still played a small part in what happened.'

'Which you didn't know about.' Terra said. 'So it's not your fault. The only person I hold responsible is Moore and, possibly, the universe for putting me through ten years of shit. She kidnapped me and she put those memories inside my head, while the universe saw fit to put me through hardship after hardship with little to no reward or respite. You didn't do any of that.' Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak but Terra cut her off with a shake of his head. 'I don't hold you, or anypony else, responsible for what I went through and what's happening to me now. The sooner you come to accept that, the better you'll feel.'

She closed her mouth and nodded. 'Okay, Terra.'

The corner of his mouth twitched upwards, a ghost of a smile flickering over Terra's face before vanishing.

The next week passed by slowly from Terra's point of view. At the end of the first day, two ponies gave up and headed back to Ponyville. On the second, three more left. And by the sixth, only five out of the original twenty-four remained. Three Pegasi and two Earth ponies, all them determined to get their families back and toughened from their trek through the Everfree Forest.

On the dawn of the seventh day, they finally arrived at the changeling stronghold, a grim and oppressive looking structure built out a shiny black resin shaped to resemble a castle or fort. Where the resin had come from, Terra didn't want to know. He was more worried about the hundreds of changelings patrolling the outside of the building and the dozens in the sky, the drone of their wings filling the air with an eerie buzz.

'We're supposed to go through all that?' Big Macintosh said, blinking several times.

'You wanted to come.' Terra said.

'There must be nearly a thousand of them!' the farmer said.

'At minimum.' Terra said. 'There's probably more inside that we can't see.' He swept his gaze over the outside of the black fort, looking for possible ways in. The only thing at ground level was a circular hole in the wall facing them, the main entrance for the changelings. Dozens milled around it while dozens more went in and out of it.

Higher up, he saw a balcony with a smaller doorway set behind it. Chrysalis' chambers, maybe?

'How are we going to do this, then?' Shining Armour asked. 'Wait for dark then slip in?'

Terra swept his eyes over the grounds once more, thinking.

'Blitzkrieg.' he finally said.

'Blitzkrieg?' Shining Armour repeated, looking less than enthusiastic. 'He's back in Canterlot. Why would you want him?'

Terra looked at the unicorn then shook his head. 'Not the General, no. I mean the type of warfare Blitzkrieg. Or a variation of it.'

'Could you be a little more specific?'

'A Blitzkrieg manoeuvre calls for a mechanised infantry force to make a concentrated and rapid assault on a single enemy position with close air support to aid in breaking through enemy lines to make a push for their rear lines so that the enemy can be encircled and destroyed.' Terra looked over the thirteen of them. 'We're not a mechanised infantry force and our air support consists of five Pegasi, one of whom has a broken wing and another isn't very confident. None of us have any weapons, barring my armour's cannons, and half of us are wounded to some degree. So we have to modify it a little.

'We keep the rapid assault on a single location part but instead of encircling the enemy, we go straight for their high command.' He pointed a hoof at the balcony above them. 'Chrysalis. Gotta move fast, and punch hard. Take her out before she can organise a coherent defence against us all then use the confusion to free all the ponies she kidnapped. It's not going to be easy and I can't guarantee you'll all come out of it unscathed or alive. If anypony wants to sit this out, I won't hold it against you.'

Nopony backed out.

Terra just nodded. 'Very well.' With a flash of light, his body was once again covered in the thick metal plates of armour, cannon on his back and lasers by his sides, all gleaming in the early morning sun. He took a deep breath, as did everypony, preparing himself for the upcoming battle.

Raising his head, Terra turned around and began walking towards the castle, the rotary cannon spooling up. Behind him, the girls, Big Macintosh, Shining Armour and the five remaining ponies from Ponyville followed.

As they broke free of the tree cover, Terra looked up at the balcony, freezing when he was who was stood on it.

Cadance, Celestia, Luna and Twilight were all lined up next to each other, their hooves manacled together and all three princesses' wings bound by thick, coarse rope, and gagged by filthy looking rags jammed into their mouths. Even from far below, Terra could see that they were on the very edge of the balcony, desperately trying to back away from it but were stopped by eight changelings, the insects using their horns and fangs to keep them in place. And stood behind all of them was the same figure Terra had first seen after piggybacking on the changeling a week ago.

Chrysalis let out a demonic cackle as the rescue party came to a halt, changelings moving to surround them.

'Oh, shit.' Was all Terra managed to whisper.


	11. Chapter 11

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Eleven

The changelings continued to press in, Chrysalis laughing from her balcony high above them with her four prisoners poised ready to fall.

Terra's cannon slowed to a halt as he remained staring upwards, the others behind him doing the same with expressions of fear on their faces.

Chrysalis slowly stopped laughing as the thirteen of them were completely surrounded, moving to look down on them, triumph on her face. 'I told you I had gone up against tougher opponents than you, Terra.' She said, voice echoing across the tops of the trees. 'Or should I call you Michael Fletcher?'

He didn't respond, not initially, then blinked and shook himself out of his daze. 'You can call me whatever the hell you want.' Terra said. 'I'm still going to kill you and every single changeling that gets in my way.'

'Oh, I think that would be a very poor choice to make.' Chrysalis said, placing a single hoof on Luna's back and gently pushed her forwards until her hooves started to creep over the edge. 'Your mare and foal would see what it's like to fly without wings if you chose that.'

'No!' Terra shouted, taking an instinctive step towards them. 'Leave her alone!'

The changeling queen cackled again. 'And what makes you think you're in any position to give demands?' She nudged Luna forward another inch. 'You killed dozens of my children, tortured another, and you just threatened to kill me and the rest of them. If anything, I should push her off now and make you watch.'

'You do that, then you're as good as dead.' Terra said.

'What about these three?' Chrysalis indicated Celestia, Cadance and Twilight, and the changelings stood behind them. 'Would you sacrifice them to get to me?'

Terra gritted his teeth. He'd forgotten about them.

'I thought as much.' Chrysalis said. She turned away from him and began pacing behind the four ponies. 'You came all this way to save your mare, only to fall at the last hurdle. How bad must that feel? To fail her not once, but twice. Each time causing her misery.' Chrysalis laughed harshly.

'We beat you once.' Shining Armour shouted, splitting his attention between Chrysalis and the changelings as they closed in. 'We can do it again.'

'Oh, I don't think so.' Chrysalis said. 'You needed your wife to do that the last time who, if you remember, I have with me now. And the only pony that has the slightest chance of making it through to me can't. Not unless he wants to see his fiancée and foal die, as well as everypony else.'

The changelings crept closer and Terra spooled his cannon back up to speed in hopes of scaring them off but it didn't work. They kept coming, herding the thirteen ponies into a huddle with no escape. He glared up at Chrysalis. 'If you don't want your kids to get chewed up, I'd give them the order to back the fuck off.'

Chrysalis laughed. 'No. I think I'll let them rip you all to shreds instead. Because you won't fight back. And you know why?' She stopped behind Luna and nudged her forward just a little, enough to dislodge a few pebbles that fell to the ground. Terra took an involuntary step forwards. Chrysalis laughed again. 'It's the same reason why you were so easy to detect. The love you have for Luna, and for your foal, I could sense it the moment you were close enough. And it's that same love that's stopping you from coming up here right now. You don't want to see anything bad happen to either of them.'

Terra kept his cannon spinning as he and the others were hemmed in by the insects, thinking of a way to fight. His mind was rapidly fragmenting, Luna and the others were trapped, the rescue team was trapped and any attempt by him would kill the very ponies they came to save. The cannon stopped.

He looked up at Chrysalis, zooming as much as he could to get a clear look at her. His targeting reticule kept flashing red as it swept over the changeling queen but Luna and the other three kept getting in the way. When it swept over them, the colour changed to green.

No, that wasn't quite right. Terra focused on Celestia, her coat providing the best contrast to see against. The targeting system flashed green back at him but at the same time it flickered red, too, as if it couldn't make its mind up on whether the Alicorn of the Day was friendly or not.

He flashed back to the cottage, remembering how the changeling had impersonated Luna and tricked him.

'Mark the Bearer of Magic.' Terra said, shifting his attention from Celestia to Twilight.

Above him, Chrysalis continued, unaware of the command the armoured unicorn had just given. 'My children are going to kill you, your friends, and these four. And you are going to let that happen. Calmly. Coolly. Entirely without incident.'

'Bearer of Magic located.' His armour said. A blue triangle popped up on Terra's HUD, pointing further into the castle and more importantly, not on Twilight.

Terra looked at Chrysalis.

She looked at him.

The two lasers on Terra's sides pointed upwards, twin red charges building at their tips.

His mouth curled into a snarl.

Chrysalis' eyes widened.

'Not a fucking chance.'

The lasers fired, striking the balcony below the four ponies, their outlines rippling with green fire as the changelings dropped their charade and were blasted by the two beams of destruction.

Terra turned away from them and to the changelings surrounding him, his cannon spinning up to full speed with a satisfying whine and an even more satisfying roar as it began firing, turning the front ranks of the black insects into a gooey green paste while the lasers set about dropping the others.

He roared and charged for the main door leading into the castle, carving a bloody path through the changelings with the grace and subtly of a speeding train armed with destructive weapons and a singular drive to use them.

A small window popped up on his HUD as he entered the castle proper, entering a cavernous space filled with a labyrinth of tunnels that branched out in all directions. It read: FRAGMENTATION AT 90%. TIME TO TOTAL FRAGMENTATION: 1 HOUR. Terra minimised it as dozens of changelings began swarming him, coming from everywhere at once, his cannon was jumping all over the place trying to take them all out but there were too many for it to deal with and soon, Terra was kicking them away with his hind legs and stomping on them with his fore legs.

He had no idea where the others were, if they were alive or not, or even which way to go to get to the kidnapped ponies. The castle was a maze and filled to the brim with hissing winged devils, all looking to bring him down. He ducked under a flying changeling then bucked it in the stomach as it sailed over him, breaking the black shell.

Its momentum and Terra's kick sent if careering into the ceiling and bouncing down the hall where it was soon lost under the hooves of hundreds more changelings, their combined hissing filling the air and vibrating the castle itself. Terra turned away from them and headed deeper into the castle, leaving a trail of dismembered body parts behind as his cannon's muzzle flash lit the tunnel he was in with rapid, hellish strobes of light that cast shadows which jumped around with every new round fired.

The closeness of the tunnels walls was also amplifying the noise of both the cannon firing and the changelings hissing, drowning out every other sound.

'Give me a layout!' Terra yelled to his armour as he skidded around a corner, nearly slipping in a puddle of something slick. He regained his footing and thundered down the next tunnel, frowning as it began sloping downwards.

His HUD became a mass of gridlines and transparent schematics, his armour's onboard computer doing as asked. Terra had no idea how it was doing what it was. He was just thankful it worked.

'Layout compiled.' The armour said back to him, clearly audible over the din of gunfire and animalistic screams.

Terra felt something slam into his side, sending him sprawling to the floor as the changeling that had blindsided him tried to bite through the toughened plates of his armour, doing nothing more than scratch the surface while a flailing hoof smacked into Terra's mouth. He tasted blood.

'Get. Off. Of. Me.' he snarled, charging the laser closest to the attacking changeling then fired it, blowing a foot wide hole in the insect. It stumbled back from him, staring down at the gaping wound, then collapsed. Terra got up and spat a glob of blood out as he carried on through the castle.

'Scan for the Bearer of Magic and any Alicorn energy signatures, and then highlight the shortest route possible to them.' Terra paused at a T-junction and span around to face down the tunnel he'd just exited, charging both lasers as much as he could.

When the walls were bathed in a crimson red, he let them go off and struck a single point above the floor. Rubble crashed down, blocking the path and sending plumes of dust past the lone unicorn.

'Route plotted.' The armour announced as a ghostly blue line faded into existence, pointing straight through Terra's blockade.

'Oh, come on!' he yelled. 'Recalculate.'

'Recalculating.' The path shifted to his right, up a sharp slope that looked more suited to Pegasi and changelings with their wings, not a unicorn weighted down with heavy armour and weapons. Terra eyes the slick slope with doubt.

He took off down the only remaining path. 'Recalculate optimal route and avoid any vertical passageways.'

The line change once again, following the tunnel Terra was in. For the first time since he'd entered the castle, there were no changelings. He could hear them, hear their angry hisses as they flitted to and fro in the other parts of the castle.

'Tag all Element Bearers.' Terra said.

Five more waypoints appeared on his HUD, as did a small window detailing his mental splintering. FRAGMENTATION AT 93%. TIME TO TOTAL FRAGMENTATION: THIRTY MINUTES.

The five waypoints offered some comfort to Terra. The girls were still alive, for now at least. The time he had left didn't. He had less than thirty minutes to navigate the castle, find the ponies Chrysalis had kidnapped, and deal with the queen.

'Recalculate.' He ordered for the third time. 'Plot the most direct path you can, including tunnels which are separated by thin walls, but keep avoiding vertical passages.'

The line flickered for the third and final time then became solid once more. Terra charged ahead as fast as he could, hooves creating a thunderous beat as they carved deep gouges in the black floor, all the while killing anything that got in his way. Changelings would appear in twos and threes, only to be reduced to chunks. Terra wondered, worried, if Chrysalis had already killed Luna and the others but his HUD was still showing six separate waypoints. Twilight was still alive, which meant the three Alicorns could be as well.

Even so, Terra hurried. Wall after wall was demolished, changeling after changeling was obliterated, and the line was still being followed. It took him downwards a few times but for the most part, it led him higher and higher.

FRAGMENTATION AT 97%. TIME TO TOTAL FRAGMENTATION: TEN MINUTES.

His mind was a mess. Terra struggled to form coherent thought, to stop himself from tumbling to the ground, to keep going. All four legs were starting to feel distant and numb and worse, his armour was beginning to flicker on and off. It was only down to waning willpower that it didn't vanish completely.

Terra came out in a wide open room after following one final tunnel, weaving heavily from side to side. His vision was starting to grow fuzzy, like it was a screen that was suffering from a poor connection or interference, and he could just about make out a mass of black shapes before him, including one blue blob. He blinked and the blobs came into focus, revealing Chrysalis standing behind Luna who had a changeling's mouth poised next to her throat, fangs ready to rip into it.

'That's far enough.' Chrysalis said as Terra approached her, hatred washing off her in waves as the stallion stopped. 'You've killed too many of my children today. Now it's time for you to watch your mare die.' She hissed something at the changeling, prompting it to inch its teeth closer. She turned back to Terra. 'Kneel.'

He knelt, but only because his legs started to give out from beneath him. Terra struggled to bring a laser to bear on the changeling. His targeting system was malfunctioning and wouldn't lock on. The tip of the laser wavered.

'I want you to watch this.' Chrysalis said as the laser dropped. 'I want you to commit this to memory.'

Terra tried his cannon but like the lasers, it wouldn't stay in place long enough to hit the changeling without hurting Luna. The barrels stopped.

'You came so close.'

With a flash, Terra's armour vanished and left him unarmed. He fell flat on the floor, leaning heavily on his side to look up at Luna, locking eyes with her.

'Yet so far.'

FRAGMENTATION AT 98%. TIME TO TOTAL FRAGMENTATION: TWO MINUTES.

Terra tried to say that he was sorry but his mouth refused to move. The only thing he managed to do was let a few tears fall.

Luna was crying too as the changeling pressed its mouth to her throat, fangs digging into her flesh and drawing small pinpricks of blood.

Chrysalis moved to stand over Terra, triumph replacing the hatred. 'Her death and the death of those who came on the rescue with you, they are all on you and you alone.' she said. 'I want you to remember that as well.'

FRAGMENTATION AT 99%. TIME TO TOTAL FRAGMENTATION: ONE MINUTE.

Terra swivelled his gaze from Luna to Chrysalis.

A glow began forming on the tip of his horn.

Like with Neighton, Terra had scanned both Celestia and Luna's minds when they attempted to merge with him all those weeks ago, checking to see who they were and whether they could enter his head. In all three cases, it had only been a quick and superficial scan but there were certain areas Terra had lingered on.

With Neighton, it had been the part of his mind that knew the spell necessary to merge with other pony's heads and see what was causing their mental issues. With Celestia and Luna, he had focused on a different spell entirely. The Nova Spell.

It was the Equestrian equivalent to a weapon of mass destruction, capable of eliminating all life that hated Equestria and her inhabitants on a planetary scale. Terra's version wasn't quite like that. He'd modified the targeting parameters to changelings and changelings alone, rather than everypony who didn't like Equestria. His version wouldn't reach all corners of the planet. He didn't have the same amount of power as Celestia and Luna, and he didn't have the Elements of Harmony backing him up. All he had was what he could muster from his aching body.

The tip of his horn continued to glow and Terra looked back to Luna, once again trying to mouth something at her but like before, nothing happened. He resigned himself to watching as the light from the growing spell cast harsh shadows behind everypony.

Chrysalis backed away from him, fear and uncertainty now resting on her face.

He tried to grin but his mouth still failed to move.

The changeling holding Luna by the throat let go and followed Chrysalis' example, backpedalling from the spell as silence fell over the room.

FRAGMENTATION AT 100%. SYSTEM SUFFERING CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. SHUTTING DOWN.

Terra felt the last bit of control he had leave him, the modified Nova Spell exploding out from the tip of his horn, no longer held in check.

As the flames spread out from him, Terra thought his saw Luna run towards his limp form but if she did, it was lost as everything turned white.


	12. Chapter 12

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Twelve

SYSTEM HAS SUFFERED A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE. SHUTTING DOWN.

.

..

...

SYSTEM REBOOTING. ENTERING RECOVERY MODE.

He came to in an open metal room lined with monitors on the two long walls. At one end was a much larger screen. At the other, a door. He didn't remember coming in here. He didn't remember what he had been doing before coming in this room. He didn't remember his name.

Slowly, and with timid movements, he got to his hooves. The room was cold. He could feel it in the floor and on his breath. It looked so familiar, like he'd been in it sometime before. But like his name, it wouldn't come to him, remaining elusive.

He looked to the screens. They all showed a dial with the needle firmly in the red zone, the image wavering slightly. It looked alien to him, but at the same time familiar.

'Hello?' he called out, quietly at first then louder. Nothing answered him, just a faint hum of the monitors. He strained to hear anything else. It was faint, and may or not have been imagined, but there was a dull beat every second.

He moved to the door. There was no obvious method of opening it, just a red light that shone in the centre of it. He tapped it with his hoof. Nothing happened.

'Hello?' he said again, getting no reply again. Turning away from the door, he headed to the huge screen directly opposite the door.

It was showing nothing, just blackness.

He tapped it with his hoof but like the door, it didn't change.

A small trill of fear ran up his spine, the beginnings of panic, and he fought to suppress it. Panicking would get him nowhere. He needed to keep a calm and cool head.

He promptly let out a shrill shriek as the wall sized screen suddenly came to life, static washing over the surface accompanied by a brief squeal from unseen speakers.

The static faded away.

'H-Hello?' he called out, looking around the room for a camera or something that would tell him somepony was watching him.

SYSTEM NOW IN RECOVERY MODE. ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SUBROUTINES HAVE BEEN PLACED INTO STANDBY MODE. CURRENT FRAGMENTATION LEVEL STANDS AT 100%. ATTEMPTING TO DEFRAGMENT SYSTEM. ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION: FIVE+ YEARS.

The words appeared on the screen and came from the unseen speakers, sound flat and machine like. He backed away from it and the screens, retreating all the way to the door. It still stayed closed.

He felt the panic from before rise up again, stronger this time. He had to get out, find somepony who could help him or explain where this place was and why he was in it. His hooves began pounding on the door, desperately trying to open it by force but he couldn't even cause a scratch on the dull grey metal, let alone beat them open.

Falling to the floor exhausted, he curled up into a ball in the corner, breathing heavily.

The monitors and huge screen didn't change, continuing to display their dials and words amid the hum of unseen machinery and rhythmic beat. Then it changed.

He watched from his corner as the largest screen minimised the text to show a new item that said 'Transcript beginning' at the top with a timer in the corner that went active. He got up and slowly approached the screen, noticing the letter L had appeared below the title, a small box blinking next to it.

The hidden speakers let loose another squeal of static then fell silent.

'Hey, Terra.' A voice said, echoing throughout the room. It sounded like a mare, speaking softly, and as she spoke the words appeared next to the single letter. 'How are you? The doctors gave us both a clean bill of health, me and the foal. They even told me the gender. We're having a filly, Terra. We're having a daughter.' There was a slight pause, and he could have sworn he felt somepony kiss his forehead, like a phantom pain. 'I wonder what she'll look like, whether she'll be an Alicorn like me or a unicorn like her father. Do you still like the sound of that? Being called a daddy?' Another pause, but without the phantom kiss.

'I hope she has some of you in her.' L said after a second. 'Something I can see every day when I look at her. Your mane, maybe, or your never give up attitude. That served you well, didn't it? No matter what stood in your way, you got it done. You could have been surrounded, outnumbered, out gunned or all three, and it didn't stop you.' She laughed. 'The word can't must have been removed from your dictionary, wasn't it, Terra?'

He stared at the screen, mesmerised by the transcript as it was being written. The mare sounded so familiar, like he knew her personally, and the way she was speaking it was as if she was close to this Terra pony. Was it him? Was his name Terra, and L was talking to him from some faraway place? The name felt right, like it was his name. He just had to remember what L's name was.

'Or was it impossible that you didn't know?' L continued. 'Did you believe there was no such thing as an impossible situation? Maybe that's why you tried to take on all those zebras in Zebrannah. Do you remember that? Our ill-fated diplomatic trip after Griffonia? I have to admit, I preferred our second trip there. Just you and me, together.' More phantom feelings, this time of a hoof being raked through his mane. Terra, deciding to use the name L had addressed him with, found the sensation to be relaxing. 'I think that's when I started to feel more than just affection for you. Waking up in your hooves, that smile you had for me when we were alone, how you comforted me when I had nightmares. But it was seeing you frightened and scared from your hallucinations that started it all. I hated it, watching my special somepony tremble and cry on the floor. I hated it even more to see you lie in a coma after Sweet Apple Acres.'

L sighed and the phantom hoof stopped. 'To see you lying here, it's unbearable. Can you even hear me? Do you know I'm here at all?'

'Yes.' Terra whispered to the screen. 'I know you're there.'

She fell silent for a short while, the transcript logging the silence and timing it. Terra stared at the screen expectantly, waiting for L to continue speaking.

'We never said goodbye to each other.' L said. 'The last time we spoke was in the cottage, after I told you about our filly. You'd proposed and I accepted. Our family was just starting.' Non-existent tears began falling on Terra's neck as the hoof resumed combing his mane. 'Then the changelings attacked and the next time I saw you was in Chrysalis' chambers. I tried to say something, anything, but I couldn't. And when I could, you were already gone.'

More tears fell on Terra's neck and he heard L laugh sadly. When she spoke again, her voice wavered.

'But you did it. You saved me, our daughter, and everypony Chrysalis had kidnapped. They all send their thanks, by the way. Your room, it's literally fit to burst from all the cards and flowers they've given you. I've had to make a small path just to get to you.' She lapsed into silence again.

'Please wake up, Terra.' L whispered. 'I don't want to raise our filly alone. I want you to be there with me, every step of the way. I want her daddy to be there for her. Please, Terra. Wake up.' Something started to shake him. 'Please. Please, wake up. Come back to me. Show me some sign that you're still in there, listening to me. Please wake up.'

Terra stayed staring at the screen, rocking just a little. 'I'm here.' he said. 'I can hear you. I'm awake.'

Like before, she didn't hear him, continuing to say wake up, each time her voice cracking that bit more until it was barely a whisper.

'Terra, wake up. Please.' L said. 'Just wake up.'

'I am awake.' Terra repeated then looked to the doors behind them. They still glowed red and remained locked shut. He marched over to them and tried yet again to beat them open, getting the same results as before. 'I am awake. I'm awake, I'm awake, I'm awake.'

The doors didn't move. He let out an anguished scream and went back to the monitor. L hadn't said anything other than wake up since he'd left it and as Terra watched, she slowly began tapering off, replacing it with soft cries.

'I'm awake.' Terra said quietly as he felt somepony bury their head in his mane. He turned around, half expecting to see another pony in the room with him but no, nothing. Just an empty room filled with screens. He sighed and looked back.

The transcript remained unchanged for the next hour. L kept crying and Terra kept sensing somepony's head buried in his mane, despite being the only one there. He'd barely moved, and his bones creaked in protest when L stopped crying and sniffed.

'Wake up soon, Terra.' She whispered. 'Please. I don't want you to not know our daughter.'

He felt a final phantom kiss as the transcript came to a close, then nothing. It was just him inside the room. Terra tapped the screen, hoping to make it do something. Nothing happened, so he tapped it a second and third time, meeting with failure each time. He sat back, trying to determine his next move. The room was sealed with him inside it, the screens showed nothing but dials and the biggest monitor there only displayed a fragmentation report.

Suppressing that earlier trill of panic, Terra resigned himself to curling up in the corner next to the screen to wait. He didn't know what was happening and as he couldn't force his way free, waiting was all he could do.

So he stayed like that, curled up in the corner with nothing but humming machines and dozens of screens for company. He didn't feel hunger, thirst or fatigue. It was like his bodily functions had ceased completely, replaced by a kind of limbo state. The only way he knew time had passed was by a small clock built into the screen, or would it have been more accurate to call it a timer like from the transcript? It told him how many minutes, hours and days had passed, pressing ever onward.

The monotony was only broken up by L returning, the transcript appearing once more to record her every word which Terra would look forward to, often sitting in front of the screen on the days she would usually appear. She came approximately once a week if the timer was accurate, talking to Terra about anything from daily life in a city called Canterlot to progress reports on her unborn filly.

_Their _unborn filly, Terra mentally corrected. He didn't know if he was the Terra she had known, or if he was the filly's father, but some part of him said that yes, it was his. L would tell him that the foal was doing fine, that the doctors had no real concern and expected her to give birth within a few months, then a few weeks, until it came down to just a few days.

'It won't be long now.' L said, a hint of excitement giving her voice a warmer tone than it had when Terra had first heard her speak all those months ago. 'The doctors say she's ready to be born and that it's just a matter of waiting. Next time I come to see you, I might be bringing her along as well. Won't that be fun? I'll tell her how brave her father is, how he risked his life to save mommy and Aunty Tia and all the other ponies that had been taken.

'I'll be sure to tell her how much daddy wanted to meet her.' L went quiet and Terra imagined her face had fallen, just a little. 'I hoped you would have woken up by now. The doctors told me your brain was showing a bit more activity than it did when you first fell into your coma, but Neighton still can't get inside for more than a skim reading. He says it's too locked up to do anything else. Will you ever come out of this?'

'I hope so.' Terra said, placing a hoof on the screen. He wanted to meet L. She sounded like she cared for him, and over the past months he'd begun to care for her, even if she was just a voice on a speaker. 'I just don't know what I'd be coming out of.'

'I hope you do.' L said after a moment's pause. 'Our family won't be complete without you.' She went quiet again and Terra heard her open her mouth to speak but gasped in pain instead, prompting the stallion to jump to his hooves in alarm.

'L?' he called out despite her inability to hear him. 'Are you okay?'

As usual, L didn't hear him. 'Sorry, Terra. The foal just kicked me, pretty hard.' Another gasp of pain. 'And again. She... She's never done this before. I-' L gasped in pain a third time, followed by a fourth and then a fifth. 'That's not a kick. It can't be. Terra, I think- I think I'm going into labour.' She let out a short laugh. 'I'm going into labour. Terra, our foal's coming!' L started to laugh again but another contraction hit her, cutting it off.

'I... I've got to tell a doctor.' L said, breathless. 'I'm going into labour.' She laughed, more successfully this time. 'She's coming. Terra, I'll bring her with me as soon as I can.' He heard L get to her hooves and start walking to the door. 'I can't believe this is really happening. We're having a foal!'

The transcript ended a few seconds afterwards and Terra stayed sat in front of it, his mind racing in anticipation. He was going to be a father? How long would it be before L came back and introduced him to their daughter? Would he be able to hear her? What name would L give her? All these thought kept going around and around inside Terra's head as he waited, watching the small clock in the bottom corner of the screen as it crept forwards.

Hours passed and still Terra waited. Days went by and still he sat, awaiting L's return. But as the days turned into weeks, and then into months, his anticipation turned to worry. L hadn't come to see him since going into labour, nor had anypony else. Had something happened to her? Had something happened somewhere that had taken her away from him?

Wild speculations, ranging from mundane to crazy, replaced the thoughts about his daughter to be and her mother, until three months after her last visit, L finally showed up.

'Hey, Terra.' She whispered. Unlike the last time, her voice was no longer warm and excited. It was a shadow of what it had been. 'Sorry I've not been to see you in a while but things have been... difficult, recently.' Terra felt somepony brush up against him and settle, their imaginary body pressed up next to his, almost as if they were lying next to him. 'I suppose I should tell you about what's been happening since I last left you, about our foal.'

L took a deep breath then let it out slowly. 'She was delivered without a problem and the doctors pronounced her fit and healthy. I wish you could have been there, Terra. I wanted you to be there. Nopony should miss the moment they become a parent, especially not you. You went through so much to get a normal life, it was your right to be there to see your daughter being born.' She let out another breath, shuddering slightly.

'She was beautiful.' L said. 'Her coat, it glowed in the light and her eyes. She might have been an Alicorn like her mother, but they were solely yours. So full of life and a faint spark of determination in them, it was almost like you were looking back at me.'

L went quiet again.

'I lost her, Terra.' She whispered, voice cracking and breaking as she spoke. 'We went to sleep that night and she never woke up. I was right there, my wing wrapped around her to keep her warm but she didn't wake up! I thought she was just deep asleep but when I tried to wake her up, I- She's gone, Terra! Our little filly, our baby foal, gone. The doctors tried everything but they couldn't revive her. She's gone!' L broke down into sobs as hooves wrapped themselves around Terra's chest and something wet buried itself in his mane.

'I never even introduced her to her daddy! She died and I couldn't do anything to stop it!' L wailed. 'I couldn't- I was- She was- Our baby is gone, Terra! She was with me all night and I couldn't save her!'

Terra just listened, mute. His foal was gone?

He didn't say anything or move an inch as L continued to sob and cry 'She's gone' over and over again, her voice getting hoarser with each passing minute. He wanted to comfort her, to say it wasn't her fault, but he couldn't. Everything he had tried prior to this had met with failure after failure. There was no way for L to hear him and there was no way for Terra to hold her. He was trapped in this room.

Silence eventually came in over the speakers as L finished crying, sniffing and hiccupping intermittently.

'I don't think I can go on, Terra.' L finally whispered. 'I've lost you, I've lost our foal. I failed as a mother and our family... Please wake up. I need somepony to hold me. I need my special somepony back. Please, Terra. Wake up.'

He held out a hoof to the screen but withdrew it.

'I am awake.' Terra said to her instead, sounding dazed and distant. 'I'm just... trapped.'

'Wake up.' L said a final time then whimpered in defeat.

He felt the hooves unwrap themselves from his body and the wet mass was taken away, leaving Terra by himself again as the transcript closed down, L having left.

It stayed closed for another five months and just as the clock clicked over to a second year, the transcript window opened up again and the familiar L appeared beside the flashing box and familiar timer.

Terra waited for L to say something, anything, but for a full hour she said nothing and he felt nopony touch him with phantom limbs until the very end when a faint soft kiss was placed on his forehead. It was only then that L spoke.

'I'm so sorry. You'll always be my special somepony, Terra. I'll never forget you.'

With that, the window closed for last time. Terra stayed sat in front of the screen, waiting for L to come back but she never did. The clock recorded another year, then another, then another and finally a sixth year, the fourth consecutive one where the transcript window failed to appear even once.

In its place was the defragmentation window, slowly counting down from 100% all the way down to zero.

SYSTEM DEFRAGMENTATION IS NOW COMPLETE. CURRENT FRAGMENTATION LEVELS STAND AT 0%. ALL MEMORIES PRIOR TO 31-3-12 HAVE BEEN PURGED DUE TO CORRUPTION. ALL NON-ESSENTIAL SUBROUTINES ARE NOW BEING REACTIVATED. SYSTEM EXITING RECOVERY MODE.

Terra felt the room he was in slowly fade away until only blackness remained and his body shift from a standing position to a lying one as his memories of the room, of L, and of the filly that had never been, faded too, leaving him just his name and sense of something lost.

Lethargy tugged at him as his eyes crept shut and light replaced the darkness.

SYSTEM REBOOTING. EXITING RECOVERY MODE.


	13. Chapter 13

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Thirteen

Light poured into his eyes, making them throb and him squeeze them shut again. Terra waited for the pounding to die down before slowly opening them again, giving them time to adjust to the brightness.

Everything was blurred and took an age to come back into focus. He was in a room, one built from stone, not metal. Why was that important? Terra felt his brow crease. What difference would it make if the room was made of metal or not? Fleeting images of a cold grey room, built of metal and filled with screens, flashed before his recovering eyes. It looked familiar but Terra couldn't place it, like the memory was just a shadow and fading fast.

He gave up trying to recall the image after several minutes and turned his attention to the stone room. He couldn't remember why he was in there, or where he was before waking up in it. All there was were disjointed images of dark tunnels and fanged insects. Beyond that were just hazy pictures.

MEMORY SUBROUTINE CURRENTLY UNPACKING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL REBOOT: TWO HOURS.

The words flashed across his eyes and echoed throughout Terra's head, mechanical and emotionless. He felt he should be worried, seeing and hearing voices, but something inside him said that it was okay, that he would just have to wait to understand it.

Turning from the room to his body, Terra quickly flexed his legs. They felt stiff from disuse, everything did, and sluggishly responded to his commands. Working them loose, Terra moved his head to take in more of the room.

Every surface was adorned with cards, their pages curled with age, and a layer of dusted coated everything. How long he been out? Some part of him said six years which, like with the voices, was okay. Several empty vases were dotted in and around the cards, the flowers they had once held long dead and thrown away.

Why were there so many cards? Terra frowned. It felt like he knew the answer but it refused to surface, staying just beyond his grasp.

'Hello?' he rasped but nopony answered. The door leading into the room was closed with the blinds drawn to cover the window from view. Terra looked at it and then at his four hooves. Lying here wouldn't answer any of his questions, going out and finding them would.

Slowly, and with great care, he eased himself from the bed he was lying on and set hoof on the stone floor for what must have been the first time in a very long time. Terra's leg shook and it took leaning against the bed to stop him from falling down. Once the shaking had subsided, he set of for the door again, opening it with a push of his hoof.

Outside was a corridor lined with doors identical to his, each bearing a different name. Some had their blinds up but most had them down. A strong antiseptic smell filled the air and Terra reasoned he was in a hospital of some kind. He glanced back at his door to see his name, looking noticeably faded compared to the others. How long had he been in there?

_Six years_, the voice in his head whispered. _But four of them were alone._

Terra frowned at this. Four of them were alone? What did that mean?

The voice in his head said nothing as Terra let his hooves take him away, not sure where they were going. It was like they were acting on autopilot, carrying him towards a distant place. For some reason, Terra felt like it was home they were taking him to. He passed nopony as he left the hospital, emerging into a grand foyer. It looked so familiar yet the why still refused to make itself known.

The unicorn mentally shrugged. In two hours, he'd know why it was so familiar. So Terra went back to watching his hooves lead him into the unknown.

He went up stairs, down them, along corridors filled with decorative ornaments, past balconies looking out over a majestic city, and passing all manner of ponies. Some wore ceremonial armour, Royal Guards the voice told him, but the vast majority had either simple garments on or nothing at all. A few gave him curious glances though most passed by without a word, focused on other things than a solitary stallion.

Terra idly tracked the route he was taking until he came to a halt outside an ornate door with a crescent moon emblazoned in the centre at eye level. Familiarity took hold of him but failed to reveal why. He knew the symbol from somewhere. That was all he could determine.

Reaching out with his hoof, Terra hesitantly knocked on the door three times, right below the moon.

Thirty seconds later, it was opened.

A bright yellow Earth pony stood before Terra, looking expectantly at the grey unicorn as if waiting for him to say something.

When Terra didn't say anything, the Earth pony put on an uneasy smile.

'Can I help you?' he asked as Terra continued to stare silently at him.

'I... don't know.' Terra said slowly, looking past the stallion. He couldn't decide on whether he was a bright yellow or soft gold. Either way, his coat was eye catching. 'Who lives here?'

'Well, I do.' The pony said. 'Me, my wife and our daughter. We have done for the past four years.'

That made Terra's ear twitch. 'Oh.'

The sound of small hooves on hard stone soon filled the air and a pale blue filly Alicorn appeared beneath the Earth pony, staring up at Terra with wide eyes.

He looked down at her.

'Hi, mister.' The filly said. 'I'm Selena. Do you know Daddy?'

Terra stared at the filly.

'No, sweetie.' Her father said, putting his hooves in front of the foal. 'He doesn't.'

'His name is Star.' Selena said. 'He and Mommy married each other before I was born. She's a princess and she says I am too.'

'Shush, now, Selena.' Star said. 'This pony doesn't need to know all that.'

'Sorry, Daddy.' Selena said, still looking up at Terra. 'Do you know Mommy?'

'I don't know.' Terra said. 'I don't really know where I am.'

Selena giggled. 'You're in Canterlot Castle, silly. That's where Mommy and Auntie Tia rule Equestria from.'

The names rang a bell and dredged up blurred memories, some showing a pristine city, others showing it in flames.

MEMORY SUBROUTINE CURRENTLY UNPACKING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL REBOOT: ONE HOUR, FIFTY MINUTES.

The memories vanished and Terra shook his head clear.

'Sir, are you okay?' Star asked.

Terra blinked and focused on the stallion. 'Yes, I think so. I only just woke up.'

'You must have been asleep a really long time to still be waking up then!' Selena said.

'It's been years.' Terra murmured, making Selena giggle.

'You're funny.' She said. 'Why don't you come to my birthday party next week? I'll be three and there's going to be balloons and cake and games and lots and lots of my friends and my Mommy's friends and my Auntie's friends and they're bringing their foals too! It's going to be fun!'

'Now, Selena.' Star said. 'We barely know this pony and I'm sure he has plans of his own. I don't think it would be right to invite him.'

'But Daddy!' Selena whined. 'I like him! He says funny things like he's been asleep for years and that he doesn't know where he is. Can we ask Mommy if he can come? Please?' The little filly looked up at her father with massive eyes and an expression that Terra could only describe as cute.

Star met her expression with a stern one but it eventually gave way to a grin. 'Okay, but only if Mommy says he can and if it's okay with him.' Star glanced at Terra. 'It is okay, right? She's not asking you to miss anything important, is she?'

'No.' Terra said. 'It's... It's okay.'

'You sure?' Star said, frowning. 'You look like you've got something that's bothering you.'

'I'm fine.' Terra said. 'Really.'

'Yay!' Selena said, vanishing from beneath Star and scampered off to find her mother.

Star offered a sheepish grin. 'Sorry about Selena. She can be a handful when it comes to meeting new ponies.'

'It's fine.' Terra said.

'Do you have any foals of your own?' Star asked.

Terra shook his head. 'No.'

'It's an experience, I'll tell you that.' Star said, smiling as Selena came back, speaking rapidly.

'-and he says that he doesn't know where he is!' Selena said. 'Plus, he's really big, Mommy. Bigger than you and almost as big as Auntie Tia! Can he please come to my birthday party?'

'Of course.' A mare said, her voice making both of Terra's ears twitch upright. She sounded so familiar, but why was he associating her voice with a screen and a transcript. 'We just have to make sure it's okay with...' Selena came back into view, her mother in tow.

Terra's eyes widened when he saw her. She was an Alicorn, like Selena, but her coat was a much darker blue. Adorning her flank was the same crescent moon as the one on the door. But what made Terra's eyes widen the most was a sudden feeling of recognition and affection he felt, knocking back a step or two. The source of these feelings, as with everything else he'd felt so far since waking up, refused to reveal itself.

'...him?' the Alicorn finished, her expression shifting from one of happiness to shock, even disbelief, as she saw Terra.

He blinked several times and cocked his head slightly. Did he know her? Did she know him? He blinked again as a small voice in the back of his head sudden started whispering abort, back out now. Retreat.

He frowned. Why should he retreat?

'Hey, mister.' Selena said. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah.' Terra said as the voice persisted. 'I just... Just need to go. I'll try to make it to your birthday party.' He cast one last look at the older Alicorn then turned to leave, his hooves moving on their own accord again.

Why was he leaving? She must know him, or at least, know what happened to him if her expression was anything to go by. So why leave? The door slid shut with a definitive clang behind him.

_She left you, _the voice whispered. _She left you after two years. She didn't appreciate what you did._

What did I do? Terra thought. He was still only seeing glimpse of memories, many of them only giving him a flash of a corpse ridden battlefield. Had he been a soldier?

The voice didn't reply, remaining quiet as Terra left the castle and entered the city surrounding it.

There were ponies everywhere, hurrying about their lives or just strolling through the city, chatting to their companions. Terra's head was on a swivel trying to take everything in. To his left was an immense clothing store called Carousel Boutique, Canterlot Branch, while to his right was a shop boasting having Sweet Apple Acres Cider in stock. Both shops were attracting a good deal of customers.

He carried on through the town, not really knowing where he was going but at the same time, not really caring. Nopony was paying him any attention though a nagging feeling in the back of Terra's head said he was being followed. By who, he didn't know.

The city eventually became less dense and open spaces began appearing, landscaped parks filled with trees and ponies enjoying the sun replacing buildings. Terra passed several until he came to a particularly large one on top of a hill overlooking the gates leading into the castle and he sat down in the shade of a tall tree.

Off in the distance, he saw a statue sat atop a stone plinth glinting dully in the bright light. There were three ponies, one of each race clad in ceremonial looking armour, stood in front of a much larger creature that stood on two legs and carried a strange looking device in its arms.

MEMORY SUBROUTINE CURRENTLY UNPACKING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL REBOOT: TEN MINUTES.

Terra stared at the two-legged creature, failing to notice the blue Alicorn who had been in the castle approach him. It wasn't until she came to a halt a few metres from him that Terra finally registered her presence.

He turned away from the distant memorial and focused on her as she stopped, blinking slowly.

'You followed me.' Terra said, a statement rather than a question. 'Why?'

'You left before we could talk.' She said.

'I only just met you.' Terra said. 'Why would we have to talk?

'You don't remember me?'

Terra shrugged. 'I don't remember a lot. Just snippets. You're in some, not in others. Everything is still coming back.'

'Do you remember my name?'

He shook his head. 'Something to do with the moon. That's it.'

She stepped a little closer. 'It's Luna. My name is Luna, Terra.'

'You know my name.' He said.

Luna nodded. 'I know a lot about you. We... We were once close. Very close.'

MEMORY SUBROUTINE CURRENTLY UNPACKING. ESTIMATED TIME TO FULL REBOOT: FIVE MINUTES.

'Were.' Terra picked out. 'We _were _close. What changed?'

She looked away. 'Nothing changed.' Luna whispered. 'Things happened. Too much too soon. I lost ponies close to me, ponies I loved.' She sat down next to Terra but kept her gaze away from the stallion. 'I made a mistake.'

MEMORY SUBROUTINE FULLY UNPACKED. MEMORY SUBROUTINE INITIALISING.

Terra opened his mouth in surprise, caught off guard by the sudden flood of memories entering his mind.

Waking up in a strange land, forced to fight an alien menace, dying for the first time, being resurrected and bound to Equestria, countless battles during both Equestrian-Griffin wars, the Mind of the Grave, Coltsdale, Haygobah, the Everfree Forest and Hayton, and then his fight with Celestia and Rainbow Dash, the shootout in Sugarcube Corner, the public turning against him and the final war where he had died a second time.

Then came his memories from being a unicorn. Discovering his immortality, his breakdown in front of Luna, going crazy from the hallucinations, the changelings attacking Ponyville and kidnapping hundreds, including Luna and her unborn foal, the final assault on the changeling stronghold.

It was too much.

Terra felt his stomach lurch and threw up on the grass in front of him and Luna, bringing up nothing but bile, his stomach empty of food already. Spots appeared before his eyes and vertigo gripped him, sending Terra sprawling to the ground, breathing hard.

'Terra, are you okay?' Luna whispered, voice full of concern as she placed a hoof on his shoulder. 'Speak to me.'

He coughed and blinked the spots away. 'I'm fine.' Terra said, spitting the taste of vomit from his mouth. 'My memories, they... They came back.'

UNPACKING BLACK BOX CONTENTS.

Another flood of memories flashed before Terra's eyes, this time of him and Luna together, looking happy and in love. Spread amongst them were images of the metal room, his inner mind, and of the things Luna had said to him whilst Terra was unconscious.

'You... You left me?' Terra whispered, flicking through the new set of memories. 'How could you leave me? I thought you loved me.' His mouth hung open and tears threatened to spill from his eyes. 'How could you leave me!'

Luna took her hoof away as Terra began breathing erratically. 'I didn't want to, Terra. Believe me when I say that, but you weren't getting any better. The doctors weren't sure you would ever wake up.'

'You could have waited.' Terra said, getting to his hooves. 'You could have waited more than just two fucking years.' He rounded on Luna, a murderous snarl on his face as he towered over the Alicorn. 'Because what's two years to an immortal like you? Huh? Probably not even ten seconds if you've lived for over a thousand damn years but no, two years was too long to wait for the pony. You. Loved.' He poked Luna hard in the chest, forcing her backwards as spittle began flying from his lips. 'Or was I nothing more than a quick fuck that got passed over the moment he could no longer perform?' Terra forced Luna back until she was corned by the tree, his hoof digging into her chest.

'Didn't you love me?'

'I'm sorry, Terra.' Luna said as branches dug into her back, 'I'm so, so sorry. I should have waited longer but I'd lost our foal, I thought I'd lost you. It was just too painful to see you lying there, unable to move or hold me. I'm sorry.'

'Is that supposed to make up for it?' Terra said, his hoof pressing Luna back further. 'I did everything for you and asked for nothing back. Then the one time where I need something, you leave me and get married and have another foal. Sorry ain't gonna cut it here.' His horn started to spark and energy arced from it to the tree, scorching the bark.

'Terra, you're scaring me.' Luna whispered as a bolt passed by her face with scant inches to spare. 'I never wanted to hurt you. I'm sor-'

'I DON'T CARE!' Terra screamed, throwing her roughly to the ground. 'I DON'T CARE THAT YOU'RE SORRY AND I DON'T CARE THAT I'M SCARING YOU. I CARE ABOUT THE FACT I WASN'T EVEN WORTH TWO YEARS TO YOU!' He stood over Luna, breathing heavily as his horn continued throwing out arcs of energy. 'Did our time together mean nothing? Did the fact we were engaged and having a foal count for fuck all? Or what about my ten years of service as a Royal Guard? Don't they mean anything?'

The glow surrounding his horn intensified then shot out in a solid beam, connecting with the trunk of the tree and obliterating it, sending the top falling as dust and splinters blew past both ponies.

'I faced down thousands of changelings to rescue you.' Terra whispered, tears flowing freely from his eyes as he spoke. 'I did it knowing full well that I might not live or even see you again. I did it because I loved you.' His horn sparked then winked out as Terra stumbled back a few steps. 'I did it for you and all I got back was two years of faithfulness? Am I... Am I really that worthless?'

'No, Terra.' Luna said, unsure of what the unicorn would do next. 'You're not worthless. You're the most important pony I've ever known.'

'Then why didn't you wait for me?' he yelled, bring his hooves down and making Luna flinch. 'If I'm worth so much, why did you leave?'

'I didn't want to.' She whispered, trying to edge away. 'I wanted to stay with you for as long as I could but after our filly died, it was just too much. I needed somepony to hold me.'

'You got more than just that.' Terra snarled as a crowd began gathering around the two and the toppled tree. 'You got yourself a replacement for me. A mortal, run of the mill Earth pony who's probably never touched a weapon in his life, let alone was willing to trade his life for someone else's.'

The tears began falling faster now as Terra's voice began to break. 'Well I have. I put my life on the line for you and this is the thanks I get?' He backed away further. 'I am worthless, aren't I?'

He sat down heavily. 'I'm worthless.'

'No, Terra. No.' Luna whispered, slowly getting up from the ground. 'You're not worthless. I just made a mistake and it hurt you. Please, Terra. I'm sorry.' She reached out and placed a hoof on Terra's shoulder.

He looked at it, as if not recognising the gesture, then threw it off angrily, face hardening into a scowl. 'I don't want your fucking apology.' Terra said quietly, pushing Luna away with a burst of magic as he stood. 'I don't want to hear your fucking excuses. I don't want to see your fucking face ever again.'

He began walking away, straight for the crowd that had seemingly doubled in size over the past minute, leaving Luna to stare dumbly after him. She blinked once then ran after him. 'Terra, wait. Please, I- I'm sor-'

Terra cut her off by smacking his hoof into her mouth. There was a sickening crunch and a small trail of blood flew through the air as Terra rounded on Luna, now clutching her broken jaw with fear in her eyes as the unicorn calmly walked over to her.

'I'm done doing things for others and not getting anything back.' he said as she backed away from him. 'I though with you, things would be different. But guess what? They weren't. I was wrong in the cottage. You weren't the best thing to ever happen to me. Turns out you were actually the worst thing. I can handle being shot at, punched, kicked, locked up in dungeons and tossed about by nuclear bombs. Being abandoned by the mare I loved? Not so much.' Terra leaned closer. 'I should do more than break your jaw for what you did, try and make you feel what I feel right now, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do this instead.

'I'm going to let you stay with Star, just so you can watch him die and know what it feels like to lose someone close to you and be unable to do anything. Because that's what it feels like to know you left me while I was in my coma.' Terra inched closer. 'And if you so much as think of following me after this, I won't wait for him to die. I'll kill him with my own hooves and I'll make Selena watch everything as I rip. Him. Apart. Am I making myself clear?'

Luna nodded as quickly as she could without disturbing her jaw.

'Good.' Terra pushed Luna down, placing his hoof right where the break was, and resumed his walk as she cried out in pain.

No one in the crowd came out to stop him, parting timidly before the stallion as his broke out into a trot, then a gallop, and sped away from Luna.

Once he was clear of the city, Terra vanished in a flash of light, leaving a scorched patch of earth behind.


	14. Chapter 14

**AN: I don't own My Little Pony. It belongs to Hasbro.**

Chapter Fourteen

Two Hundred Years Later

The sun was just peeking out from behind a dense cloud cover, illuminating a clearing in the forest and the crude dwelling built there.

Celestia circled it once then came in to land, touching down just north of the house and the fence surrounding it. She quickly looked over the ground within the fence, noticing a wide and varying range of vegetables, but soon focused on the lone unicorn tending to them all.

He hadn't looked up as she flew overhead, nor had he when she landed, staring intently at a row of carrots, dragging a crude hoe through them with his teeth rather than with his magic.

She approached the fence and came to a halt just before a gate that was nothing more than a plank of wood that swung in and out.

'What do you want?' the stallion said, spitting the hoe out as the Alicorn watched him, looking back at her with contempt.

'To talk.' Celestia said as she met his glare with a neutral expression. 'It's been over two hundred years, Terra.'

'So?' he said back. 'Doesn't change what happened. She still left me.'

'And you hurt her.' Celestia said as Terra picked up his hoe again and started on the next row of vegetables. 'In more ways than one.'

Terra snorted. 'Like what?' He dragged the weeding tool through the next row. 'Did I abandon her to go off and start a new family? No. Did I leave her feeling like the lowest of the low, that all her efforts up to that point were for nothing? No. I left Luna to live the life she'd made after doing all of that to me.'

The hoe fell to the floor as Terra faced Celestia, pointing at himself. 'I'm the one who was hurt. Me. Have you any idea what it feels like to risk your life time and time again for someone, only to find out that they didn't appreciate it enough to wait more than two years? Well I'll tell you what it feels like. It feels horrible.

'I feel like no one cared about me, that they all took advantage of me.' He said, now pointing to his house. 'Most days, I'm either screaming at the world outside or lying in bed, crying my eyes out. On the very rare occasion that I'm neither depressed or on the warpath, I'm fighting to suppress a rising sense of inadequacy. I've not felt one good emotion over the past two hundred years because of what your sister did to me.' His hoof dropped. 'So please, do tell me how _I _hurt her in more ways than a broken jawbone.'

'You broke her heart.' The Alicorn said quietly. 'Luna never stopped loving you, even when she married Star.'

'So why did she marry the bastard in the first place?' Terra hissed. 'If she loved me, why did Luna marry Star?'

'She married him because no foal of royalty can be born out of wedlock.'

Terra's mouth opened in confusion then shut a few seconds later when he figured out what Celestia meant, turning into a scowl. 'Selena. That explains why she was three when I woke up. Her father fucked her mother when I was into Year Two of my coma. And it explains why Luna said goodbye when she did.'

'That's not what happened.' Celestia said, voice raised ever so slightly, enough to make Terra flinch a little. 'My sister stayed faithful to you for as long as she could, but between losing your foal and your lack of improvement, it was only a matter of time before her resolve snapped. I held Luna after she said her goodbyes to you, trying my best to console her. For three days, I did nothing else. When Luna finally stopped crying, she was an emotional wreck and Star was the first pony to show her any sympathy. He stayed with her over the next few weeks, being somepony Luna could look to for support when I wasn't there.'

'And the having sex with him part?' Terra said. 'Was that all part of the support?'

'Put yourself in her hooves.' Celestia said, her voice once again quiet. 'Luna had just lost two ponies important to her. Her foal, and the stallion she'd been through so much with and developed such a close bond to. Would you describe your emotional state as stable at that point?' When Terra looked away, she continued. 'Star did his best, trying to be the pony Luna needed. He listened to her, held her, dried her tears. Who do you think she would turn to when her needs went beyond emotional support? Who would she go to for physical comfort?'

'Star.' Terra said sullenly.

'She didn't love him, not like you.' Celestia said. 'It was always you. Star was merely a coping mechanism, a way for Luna to try and get over the grief of losing her first family, the one she loved. What happened in the park opened up old wounds and added new ones that neither myself or Star could heal, and when he died Luna came close to giving up completely. It was only because of Selena that she kept going.'

'So why have you tracked me down?' Terra asked, sitting down slowly. 'Why?'

Celestia followed Terra's example, sitting down on the forest floor just behind the fence that marked his property. 'Do you still love her?'

'I don't think I do.' Terra said. 'Luna did leave me for someone else. That didn't do her any favours.'

'Then why do you still dream about her?' Celestia asked. 'Not just the nightmares, but the ones where the two of you are together, happy. If you don't love her, why are the dreams you try to hold on to always include Luna?'

'You've seen my dreams?' Terra asked back.

'No, but Luna has and she keeps a diary detailing them all.' she answered. 'The nightmares are covered in as few words as possible, most often having nightmare as the only word in the entry. The dreams of you together, Luna tries to cram as much detail in as she can. They're the ones she holds close. They're the ones she reads time and time again.'

'All that proves is I want to not be fucking miserable for a little while.' Terra said. 'Those few months that I was with Luna for were the happiest I've had since coming to this planet, even if she did end up leaving me.'

'Something she didn't want to do and has never been happy with.' Celestia said, her voice growing louder once more. 'Luna still loved you, even during her time with Star. And she still does. Why else would she record your dreams?'

'I don't know.' Terra said. 'I'm not her. And you never answered my question. Why track me down? I made it clear I never wanted to see Luna again.'

'Tell me the real reason why you still dream about her and I'll answer.' Celestia said.

'I've already told you.' Terra said slowly. 'My time with her was the only time I've felt truly happy, where I wasn't fighting monsters or insane cultists. I was living a normal life. Compared to what I'd gone through, both before then and afterwards, I'll take anything I can to feel that way just once more.'

'That's not the real reason.' Celestia said. 'You still love her.'

Terra snorted. 'Love her? She left me, left me to gather dust and fade into obscurity. I wasn't even worth two years. Why should I still love her?'

'Because beneath everything, you understand why Luna did what she did.' She countered. 'You've had two hundred years to think it over. She lost her foal and her fiancée. Would anypony in that situation be emotionally stable? Would you have been? No. Luna regretted leaving you in the first place, but she did it save herself from suffering anymore pain. The only part of you that's angry at her is the part of you that's scared of being alone, who wanted normality. How long did you fight to achieve that? Ten years?

'It's understandable you'd feel upset when Luna left you, betrayed even. But is that the part of you who loved Luna feeling that, or the part who feared being without anypony to hold?' Celestia said. 'Your isolation on this planet is what caused most of your anger, if not all of it. When you and Luna became each other's special somepony, that anger was repressed, buried deep, replaced by content and happiness. You came to love Luna. Her leaving you simply unlatched the locks keeping your anger in place, allowing it to spill over and consume you once again.

'You never hated Luna. It was just your anger and fear of being alone using it as an excuse to stay.'

Terra looked down at his hooves, thinking over what Celestia had said. Yes, he was angry at Luna for leaving after so short a time but could he blame her? Would he have been able to stay by her side if she was in a coma and he'd lost their foal?

'I would have done the same thing.' He whispered. 'I would have waited as long as I could, holding out hope she would wake up and everything could go back to the way it was. I just- I didn't want to be alone anymore.'

'Do you love her?' Celestia asked one last time.

'I don't know.' Terra said. 'I really don't know. Yes, maybe, but it's just been so long, two hundred years of listening to that voice. I don't know.'

'Would it help if you saw her?'

He shrugged. 'Maybe. Probably.'

'She's dying.' Celestia said, making Terra's head snap upright. 'That's why I came to find you. Luna is dying.'

'She- She's dying?' Terra whispered. 'Wha-? What from?'

'She's given up.' Celestia said, almost forlornly. 'Selena died a few weeks ago, a brain aneurism the doctors said. Painless and in her sleep. Luna took it, well, badly. I think between losing you, your unborn foal, Star, her emotional state has been tentative to say the least. Selena was the only reason she kept going, to be a good mother for her. Now she's gone...'

'There's nothing left for Luna to live for.' Terra finished. 'Isn't there some way to treat her?'

'I don't know.' Celestia said. 'She's still eating and drinking but barely. Her body can't go on like that. She needs a reason to live. She needs her special somepony, or to at least see them one last time. I don't want my sister to die thinking you hate her.'

'How long does she have if she doesn't improve? How long before it's too late to save her?'

'A week, maybe more.' Celestia looked off to the north. 'The doctors are trying everything they can to slow the process, to make her eat at least something, but Luna refuses. If you still love her, come back to Canterlot, even if it's just to say goodbye. Put her mind at rest.'

Terra looked to the north as well, memories of Canterlot flickering into his mind's eye with startling clarity despite it being well over two hundred years since his last visit to the capital. He turned back to Celestia as she stood and unfurled her wings, taking to the sky with a single powerful flap, and was soon lost behind the approaching clouds, lightning flashing and thunder rumbling as they did.

He didn't move, even as the sun was blocked out and torrential rain began pouring down on him, quickly soaking and chilling the stallion within minutes. Terra just looked to his house and then to the direction Celestia had flown.

A bolt of lightning lit up the underside of the clouds as Terra got to his hooves and began marching through the mud, picking up his pace until he was running through the forest, his horn starting to crackle.

Another bolt of lightning and he vanished inside a ball of energy, leaving behind a patch of steaming mud.

Canterlot looked bigger than he remembered, both in height and total land covered. The buildings, however, retained the same architecture as they had two centuries ago.

Terra found himself looking up at them as he galloped by, heading in vaguely the castle's direction. It was late and hardly anyone was out on the street, just a few stragglers who eyed him with curiosity.

Ahead, the castle loomed and two guards stood either side of the main door, wielding spears. They came to attention as Terra approached, slowing to a quick walk. He passed by them and entered the main foyer of the castle where a Pegasus mare stood waiting, as if expecting him.

'Ah, you must be Terra.' She said as the stallion drew closer. 'Princess Celestia told me you were coming.'

'Where is she?' Terra said. 'Where's Luna?'

'Up in her room.' The mare said. 'Princess Celestia is already there, awaiting your arrival.'

Terra nodded and headed for the stairs. While Canterlot looked bigger, the castle didn't and its internal layout was exactly the same as it had always been. Within minutes, he was stood outside the doors leading into Luna's room where Celestia and a few ponies he guessed were doctors had gathered.

Neither party bothered with greetings or pleasantries.

'How long left?' Terra asked.

'A few days, if that.' one of the doctors said, pushing over a plate of food and a jug of water. 'Her odds might improve if you get her to eat and drink these. If she does, you must get her to consume it all.'

'Eat and drink everything.' Terra repeated, levitating the two items with his magic. 'Got it.'

'Thank you, Terra.' Celestia said as he turned towards the door.

'I haven't done anything yet.' He said, nodding to the untouched food and drink.

'You came back. Even if you don't manage to save her, at least Luna got to see you one last time. That's enough.'

'Don't thank me yet.' Terra said as he opened the double doors, taking a moment to compose himself, then entered the darkened room.

It felt oppressive, the low lighting and sense of apathy sending chills down Terra's spine as he picked his way through discarded tissues and abandoned platters of food, some of them still carrying their meals. More than a few were covered in a growing mould, the number increasing the further Terra went in.

His eyes adjusted to the dark and he picked out a listless shape covered by a starry blanket lying on top of a bed, leather bound diaries and loose pieces of paper surrounding it.

The shape stirred as Terra set the food and drink down on the floor, next to the bed.

'I don't want it.' Luna rasped, her voice further muffled by the blanket on top of her. 'I'm not hungry.'

Terra didn't say anything, staring at her instead.

'Go away.' Luna said after a minute. 'I don't want to see anypony.'

'I... I'm not-' Terra whispered, his own voice taking on a rasp like quality as he fought a growing sense of guilt. In a way, he'd done this to Luna, made her apathetic to everything around her. 'I'm not... I'm not anypony.'

Beneath her blanket, Luna froze. 'T-Terra?' she whispered. 'Is that...?'

'Yes.' He said, swallowing as tears threatened to form. 'It's me.' He took a step closer as the covers moved to reveal Luna.

It made Terra flinch. Her eyes were sunken and lifeless, staring up at him with remorse and uncertainty, while her mane hung limply over a greasy coat. It wasn't her appearance that made him flinch, it was the knowledge he'd done it to her. A solitary tear crept from his eye as he moved closer.

'I thought you didn't want to see me again.' she said, struggling to sit upright before giving up.

'I thought wrong.' Terra said as he reached the bed. 'I was just listening to my anger, letting it control me. I know you didn't want to leave me but you had good reason to.' He lowered his head. 'I... I would have done the same.'

'You're not mad?'

Terra sighed and sat. 'Part of me is, yes. I would have thought you might have waited more than two years after everything we went through. For the most part, though, I'm not mad.' He raised his head and looked Luna in the eye, blinking away tears. 'I'm sorry.' He glanced uneasily at the piles of discarded food and diaries, then at Luna again. 'I did all this to you.'

'We did it to each other.' Luna offered him a weak smile but it soon faded. 'I hurt and drove you away for two hundred years. You left me with two hundred years of guilt.'

'I never wanted to hurt you, you know that. Right?'

'Right.' She gave him another smile, stronger this time as Terra brought over the platter of food.

'You need to eat.' He said, lifting the lid off to reveal a plate full of fruit and vegetables. 'Please.'

'Only if you lie next to me.' Luna said. 'I've... I've forgotten what it feels like.'

Terra nodded, climbing up onto the bed beside Luna. She shivered and pressed up close to him, prompting the unicorn to drape the blanket back over her.

'Eat.' He said gently, nudging the plate towards her. 'And drink.'

'Okay.' Luna tried to levitate a green apple over but her horn sparked and flickered then went out, letting the apple drop back down. She looked up at Terra, almost apologetically.

He just smiled down at her and used his magic to float the fruit over for her to take a bite out of, keeping it there until Luna had reduced it to a core.

'Feel better?' Terra asked as he discarded the rubbish.

'A little.' Luna said.

'Good. That's good.' Terra said as he brought out a cup of water for Luna, taking it away once she'd had a few sips. 'You've made the doctors and your sister worried, not eating or drinking.'

'I didn't feel like anything.' Luna said as Terra held out the next bit of food. 'I just... I just wanted to be alone. After Selena died...'

'It was too much.' Terra said as Luna trailed off. 'I know. That's how I felt some days.'

'How did you cope? Without anypony to help you?'

'I'm too stubborn to just give up.' Terra said as the next piece of fruit was eaten. 'You know that, and so do hundreds of griffins, zebras and Mind of the Grave members. I don't believe in surrendering.'

'No, you don't.'

Luna rested her head on Terra's shoulder as he continued to feed her, slowly going through the food until a single carrot remained. He gingerly picked it up with his mouth and held it out for Luna who smiled faintly.

'Is this the last one?' she said.

'Last one.' Terra said as best he could. 'Last one then we're done.'

Her smile grew a little as she began eating the carrot, gradually inching closer to Terra until their lips met.

'I've missed you.' Terra said as they broke apart.

'I missed you too.' Luna whispered, giving him a more firm kiss. She smiled and let her head drop back to his shoulder, eyes flickering to stay open. 'You'll stay, won't you? You won't leave me again?'

'I won't.' Terra said, using his magic to tidy the plate and jug away. 'I won't.'

'Good.' Luna mumbled, her head slowly dropping down to the bed. 'Good.' She snuggled closer to Terra, curling up beneath her blanket as he placed a pillow under her head. 'Don't leave me.'

'I won't.' Terra said quietly as her breathing became shallower. 'I'm not going anywhere.'

Luna hummed sleepily then settled, leaving Terra to watch over her as she slept. He tucked the blanket in a bit more and adjusted the pillow a little, trying to make Luna as comfortable as possible. She looked worn out and Terra guessed this was the first sleep she'd gotten in a long while.

He tidied the diaries and loose pieces of paper away then moved as slowly as he could and without disturbing Luna until his hooves were wrapped around her body, adding an extra layer of warmth for her cold body. She murmured contently as he drew her close.

'I'm not going anywhere.'

**Okay, first of all. Just wanna say sorry about ending pretty much every chapter in this thing on a downer barring two, them being this one and number five. Not something I've usually done but what can I say? Me evil side was co-piloting. Second, thanks to everyone who followed/favourite/reviewed this thing. Third, this is going to be the last Feet First story I'm doing. Not because I've run out of ideas, I'm pretty sure the madhouse called my brain could wrangle something together if given half the chance, but because I want to move on to other things, most notably trying my hand at writing and publishing a book. **

**Doesn't mean I'm not going to post a new story, there are ideas rattling around, just that it might be a while before it goes up. Or gets updated. Or some other third thing. Anyway, until next time. Which may or may not be a My Little Pony fic but anything is possible. Except breathing in space. That's just impossible. Bye.**


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